The assembling of people together to promote peace does no
harm provided it is peace pure and simple, not peace according to the prescription of a particular State, that is in question. A new body, " The Musicians' Organisation for Peace,' starts with the considerable disadvantage of finding three-quarters of a column in black type devoted to it—with high approbation—on the front page of the Daily Worker. Let that pass. It is fair to add that the Daily Telegraph also mentions the organisation on its front page, though not in special type. But what do the musicians want that nine-tenths of the people of this country don't want, and how do they propose to achieve it ? They want the " breaking down of suspicion and the encouragement of free and friendly intermingling of peoples." Where is suspicion engendered ? Where is a relentless isolation insisted on ? How many musicians have been able to mingle freely and friendlily with the people of Russia ? The second aim is to " urge the Governments of the Great Powers to settle their differences by peaceful negotiation, however arduous and taxing to the patience this may be." Who could fail to agree ? But on which Great Power is this course to be urged ? . Which Powers have month after month been striving for a settlement by negotiation in Korea ? Which Power, per contra, has drawn a line through Europe and hung an iron curtain across it, which no negotiations have been able to pierce ? The musicians' efforts are in principle to be applauded. It might mean a lot if they had any effect in the only quarter where such efforts are needed.
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