Show nations L actions must submerge sovereignty for peace by BAUKHAGE news analyst and commentator service 1616 eye street N W washington D C HUNTER COLLEGE THE BRONX N Y these notes are being jotted down in the basement basemen t of a room that once sounded to the dull staccato thud of rubber soled gym shoes as the girls came tripping downstairs from the floor above to scamper into the showers pull on their bobby socks and other strange accoutrements which distinguish the modern female collegiate legi ate it is du during ringa a lull in the session of the security council of the united nations there are arc no bobby socks present but there are some rather solemn looking females here R 5 camera snaps baukhage at hunter college with iranian flag in background in the press lounge along with their not quite so solemn male counterparts ter parts snatching a pause that is supposed to refresh I 1 hear t the he rapid flow of french some lutteral gut teral slavic singsong sing song chinese and liquid spanish in a corner is a television set which at the moment reveals americas representative t the he white haired handsome mr scratching his left ear he is speaking and his words come over the loud speaker the camera moves and we see the delegates one after another some listening some whispering for stettin us has stopped and the loudspeaker is translating his words into french I 1 have just gone over these notes and others that formed the basis of later broadcasts from the studio which looks down on the council chamber I 1 am seeking in them an answer to the question which has been asked of me many times since I 1 have been here in new york a question that perhaps you would ask too if we could reverse the sound waves and let the listen listener speak and the speaker listen Is the united nations really going to get anywhere first let me admit that as I 1 write we are walking a tightrope tight rope stretched between two crises either of which might wreck us or might be forgotten by the time these apes reach the printed page and of course the rock upon which the united nations may flounder is the veto most people dont understand the veto briefly it is the right of any of the big powers the permanent members of the executive council to say no to the discussion of any matter which said power want raised power politics still in force in other words power politics is still in force and the only advance we have made is that compromise which is the basis of all democratic action is the only possible solution of controversial questions the undemocratic alternative is the use of power which in this case may be exercised without the will of the majority the right of the veto is as was brought out in a recent university of chicago roundtable round table discussion really the insistence on the expression of national sovereignty the sovereign right of a nation if it gets mad enough to promulgate the organized savagery of war we can it is true never hope for any permanent peace until we are willing to yield that sovereignty to a higher authority which expresses the will of the majority of all peoples the united nations at present has not been granted that authority but there is hope which I 1 have watched grow as international proceedings ce move forward under the impetus of a will to peace and the implementation of ever growing publicity which creates the understanding to bolster that will it is this as the united nations continues to discuss those matters which are not affected by the veto as it deals with social and economic problems as it plans to do such a strong public sentiment can be built up behind it that nationalistic world minorities cannot stand up against it there is that hope there is is another atomic energy As chairman corbett of the department part ment of political science of yale university put it when it comes to that control of atomic energy I 1 think that the discrepancy between the legal situation in the UN he refers to the power of the veto and the nationalistic insistence on sovereignty and the actual needs of international collaboration are going to become so glaring that we are going to have to make a direct attack upon this problem of the veto the key word to that remark is glaring the needs of international collaboration must glare in the light of pitiless publicity the light of understanding must be shed upon the truths of what another war will mean and it must be more than light heat must be incandesce incandescence nse world sentiment must rise to the degree at which it creates the energy necessary to bring action peace must become dynamic |