America's Post-war Policy
The five-point plan introduced in the American Senate by two Democratic and two Republican Senators raises in a direct and concrete form the crucial question of America's attitude to post- war reconstruction. The four Senators ask for nothing less than an organisation of peace-loving nations with power to stop future aggression and the establishment of an international police force. The resolution is a direct challenge to the Isolationists,' who now prefer to call themselves " Non-interventionists " ; but members of the Administration who most sympathise with it doubt the wisdom of introducing here and now a detailed plan which would be sub- jected to searching criticism and might fail to obtain the two-thirds majority necessary to any subsequent treaty ; and it is likely that the Foreign Relations Committee may amend and generalise the resolution before sending it back for discussion in the Senate. But the Administration is well aware that there is much uneasiness among the United Nations about the future attitude of America. All understand what the United States is now for the purposes of war, but what she will be after the war is an unknown quantity. Mr. Harry Hopkins put his finger exactly on the spot when he said that every nation has two post-war plans—one to follow if the United States goes isolationist and the other if America pursues the path of collaboration.. When Senator Wheeler says that there is no means of judging the future intentions of Russia, the reply is inevitable that there is as yet no certainty about the future intentions of America. When that can be cleared up there will be an immense sense of relief from one end of the world to the other. Senator Ball and his colleagues are endeavouring to commit the United States. If they succeed in getting no more than assent to the principle of post-war collaboration that will be something, and would strengthen the President's hands. We know well that America is not to be hurried in taking decisions ; yet, as Senator Ball pointed out, if agreement is not reached during the war, the forces making for harmony are likely to disappear.
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