OCR Text |
Show lean, Aged Mountaineer" C' BreaksDown Allied Distrust . Secretary Hull's Determination and Sincer- ' l l ity During Visit to Moscow Broke Barriers Of Suspicion. Russia Now Real Ally. -J f By BAUKIIAGE Ninvs Analyst and Commentator. WNU Service, Union Trust Building, Washington, D. C. The flag is flying over the White House again, a real symbol, no longer long-er a ruse de guerre. After the past lew weeks, it is a relief to know it really means that the President is t.Here not an attempt to hide his absence from the enemy. Already the nervous bulletins, announcing an-nouncing the forbidden truths or the invented canards as to the whereabouts where-abouts of the Allied leaders, are forgotten for-gotten in the more instant interest In the happenings on the battle fronts on the home front. Washington has had time to ponder pon-der on America's new leadership in world affairs. Perhaps that toast offered of-fered by Premier Stalin to American war production without which, he said, the war could not have been won by the Allies, brought the truth home. America is emerging out of this holocaust as the world's great-st great-st power. And for the first time in history, the world's greatest power is the Ration whose people are least prepared, pre-pared, least experienced, least anxious anx-ious for world leadership. There is a chance that we may let it go by default. de-fault. Washington has assayed pretty Well by this time the fruits of the Moscow conference, the Cairo conference con-ference with Chiang Kai-shek attending; attend-ing; the Teheran meeting; the meeting meet-ing with Turkey's president. Russia's New Role The achievement, first and foremost, fore-most, unless we read all the signs a-wrong, is that Russia emerges in a new role. As Secretary Hull firmly firm-ly believes, the fate of the world depends de-pends now on Russia and the United States. Until the Moscow conference with the Teheran meeting to put its seal upon it, Russia was still an international interna-tional enigma. She was fighting the same enemy that we were in Europe. But she was in no sense an ally. Today she is still fighting the same enemy in Europe but is allied with us. Those are the main fruits of the Moscow and Teheran conferences. We are not a nation of diplomats, j England has the wisdom of the ages Inherited from an intimacy with the j chancelleries of Europe since the days of Metternich. Today she has, 1 it the head of her government, one of the greatest leaders the empire has produced. But not even English jTuile or graciousness, her wile or tier wisdom accomplished what one lean and aged mountaineer achieved In the Kremlin. When Cordell Hull went to Moscow, Mos-cow, he went as a knight on a cru-lade, cru-lade, not for personal glory, not for gain, but because he felt that was the duty the Lord had laid upon him. He told himself before he went, despite de-spite the timorous restraint of physi-:ians physi-:ians in whose care he had been, despite the concern of the wife he j loves so well, that he would go on ! this mission if it took him by land 1 Dr sea or air to the ends of the earth. And when he arose at that first meeting and addressed the representatives represent-atives of the three powers, he said i frankly that what he was about to propose was in the interest of his Dwn country. He hoped he could j jhow that it would be in the interest of all. . I Mr. Hull's Terms And he said that what he would : lay would be frank and forthright j nd what he expected would be said : lo him would, likewise, be frank and forthright, truths minted in the same ! coin. And Mr. Hull was met ' Iquarely on the terms he laid down, j Jan Christian Smuts, now mel- ; lowed perhaps with a flavor of Brit- ; Ish diplomatic acumen, is fundamen- ; tally a person who sees beyond his ! 5wn borders (he envisioned an as- j lociation of nations before the j League was proposed in the last i tvar). After the last of the conferences, confer-ences, he declared that no such gatherings gath-erings for the last hundred years had been as important as these. I do not pretend to say that Secretary Sec-retary Hull was solely responsible or the success of these meetings; In fact, only time will tell how lasting last-ing their success will be, but it is he firm conviction of even the skeptical skep-tical in Washington that it was the oneness of purpose, the sincerity, the unwavering determination of this hardy son of Tennessee that broke down the barriers of suspicion and distrust and found a common way for Russia to march solidly shoulder-to-shoulder with Britain and America Amer-ica in this war and to give promise that the three would face the peace afterward with the nearest thing to international altruism that this weary world can expect. Moscow paved the way. Teheran sealed the covenants. It killed once and for all the controversy over the "second front" and struck the cadence ca-dence that brought the Allies marching march-ing in step toward victory. How was this accomplished? By convincing Russia that it was not the plot of the capitalistic nations to let her bleed white on the battlefields so that she could be throttled in the postwar world. About Chiang Kai-shek We cannot omit from any discussion discus-sion of these meetings what America Amer-ica achieved when she brought Chiang Kai-shek into the picture. The Chinese believe in America. They think we have decent ideals. But they assayed us as a still more or less kindly, indifferent people who, without much thought, would dance to the British tune. And Britain they distrusted. They know now that America had the breadth of view and the acumen to use that word again in its best sense to bring China into the higher councils of the Allies. It was Hull who insisted that China become a co-signatory of the four-nation agreement agree-ment at Moscow. It was America, Hull, Roosevelt whomever you wish to credit for the act who brought Chiang into the Cairo conference. Strangely enough, America, nearer near-er to Europe by the racial ties of a great part of its citizenry, is even closer to Europe's culture than the residents of the tight little British Isles themselves. Yet America's ignorance ig-norance of Europe's real needs and thoughts is vast compared to that of England's statesmen. But America Amer-ica does seem to understand the Far East, can sympathize with it, and once America assumes the position to which her mighty power gives her the right, she can be the real interpreter in-terpreter between the East and the West. And lacking an interpreter, the East can only become a great potential enemy, protagonist of racial ra-cial hatreds and racial wars. America won her spurs at Moscow and Teheran, all we can ask is the support of the people so that she can wear them, with the honor she loves, with the power she has. U. S. Food Production And World Needs A detailed analysis of the world's food, fiber and tobacco needs and the part the United States must play in supplying them now and in the postwar post-war period, has been made public by the National Planning association. associa-tion. "If the United States were to adopt a minimum diet . . . and direct its present food-producing resources and agricultural labor accordingly," says the National Planning association associa-tion (a non-governmental organization), organiza-tion), "there would be enough food left over to feed another one hundred hun-dred and thirty million people." The report, "World Needs for U. S. Food and Fiber," was prepared by Dr. John D. Black of Harvard. Dr. Black is also a member of the Food and Nutrition board of the National Na-tional Research council and on the Economic panel which is advising the United Nations Interim commission commis-sion on food and agriculture. Home production must and can be expanded to meet the needs of the United Nations, the armed forces, our own civilians, and to aid starving starv-ing countries, the report contends. But even with greatly expanded production, pro-duction, it holds Qut little hope for an end to all rationing for a year or even two years after the war. "A highly efficient, low cost, balanced bal-anced human diet can be compounded compound-ed from whole wheat, potatoes, peas and beans, whole milk, vegetable oils and carrots and tomatoes," says Dr. Black, "but at the same time, any reasonable statement of food njeds must recognize not only the difficulty of changing food habits quickly but also the production factors which can diversify the diet considerably." |