Geneva
IT is hard to feel any sorrow about the fate of the disarmament talks. Up to the time of the Summit many Western delegates argued that they were worth while, even if they did not achieve much, as a clearing-house for ideas; that they kept East and West talking together, fairly amiably. Of the Western delegations, the British were perhaps the most inclined to take this line, because they felt that as honest brokers they had a valuable part to play, breaking down dis- trust between Americans and Russians. But the Summit showed just how little they had achieved; and it is almost certainly better to have no pre- tence of cordiality or co-operation where none can exist, than to go on wasting time in futile negotiations. To argue, as the Daily Mail did on Wednesday, that 'when a house of cards collapses the cards remain. They can be picked up and . . . glued together to make something perma- nent' is foolish — though revealing; Mr. Macmillan's peace house was indeed made of cards. Now that this is generally realised, the sensible thing to do is to look around for rather more durable building materials, and not to be deluded by whatever cardboard substitutes the Russians may offer the next time.
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