TWELVE POLICY POINTS

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 103, 29 October 1945, Page 6

TWELVE POLICY POINTS

InrPoint No. 3 of his 12 points programme, published today, President Truman declares on behalf of the United States:" "We shall approve no territorial changes in any friendly part of the world unless they are in accord with the freely expressed wishes of the people concerned." No definition of the term "any friendly part of the world" is attached. Apparently it is intended to exclude exenemy countries. If so, what countries are left inside the definition of "friendly" countries? Does the President refer to- Java, Indo-China, or other territories in that part of the East? The restoration of Dutch rule in Java and the Netherlands East Indies would not amount.' to a territorial change; it would be simply a return to pre-war conditions. On the other hand, a departure from those conditions, in favour of the local peoples of Java and Indo-China, would j be a very marked change. American 'non-approval of territorial change in either of those countries, unless in accord with the "freely expressed wishes" of the local people, would leave a loophole for American approval of change if the local people so voted. But the vagueness of this third.pomt—the doubt as to what part of the friendly part of the world is concerned, and as to the limits of the words "the people concerned"—forbids conjecture. Point No. 3 needs elucidation.

Point No. 6 is not geographically or territorially limited. It seems to be global. Whereas Point No. 3 refers to non-approval, Point No. 6 uses a more specific term, non-recognition. "We [the United States] shall refuse, to recognise any Government imposed upon any nation by the force of any foreign Power; in some cases it may be impossible^ to prevent the forceful imposition of such a Government, but the United States will not' recognise any such Government." Suppose the i United- States Government holds the opinion that Russia has "imposed" a Government already on Bulgaria or Rumania, or suppose that in times to come the United States Government should hold that Britain has "imposed" some Government upon Greece, what would happen under Point. No. 6? Washington would "refuse to recognise" that Government; what else might happen the President does not specify. The non-approval of territorial changes "in any friendly part of the world," and the non-recognition of an "imposed" Government in any part of the world, are accompanied, (Point No. 4) by a simple declaration that "all peoples prepared for selfgovernment should be permitted to choose their own form of government by freely expressed choice without interference from any foreign source." The governing phrase in this is "prepared for self-government." How many peoples, not now enjoying selfgovernment, are "prepared" for, it? And where does self-government end and independence begin?

This point No. 4 contains a geographical detail; the principle of choosiAg the form of self-government a people prefers is "true in Europe, Asia, and Africa [that is, in the Old World] as well as in the Western Hemisphere [the New World]." But (Point No. 9) "the sovereign States of the Western Hemisphere, without interference from outside the hemisphere, must work together as good neighbours in the solution of common- problems." Popular choice of self-government is therefore declared to be a true principle both in the Old World and the New, but "in the solution of common problems" the States of the Western Hemisphere are expected to work together without interference from outside. While President Truman is dealing with these principles, his Assistant Secretary of State, Mr. Braden, is, declaring with the utmost emphasis that the same principles are being trampled on in one of the greatest States of the Western Hemisphere, Argentina, whose representatives were admitted to the San Francisco Conference, but are not now being admitted to the 1.L.0. Conference. It may be added here that, in addition to the enumeration of 12 points, President Truman names four "principal tasks" of United States policy, and the third of these tasks is "'to co-operate with the other American nations to preserve the territorial integrity and political independence of the nations' of the 'Western Hemisphere." It is possible that Colonel Peron will interpret this language not as it is. intended. There are, in fact, many questions of interpretation to clear up. Meanwhile, in Argentina, Palestine, the Netherlands Indies, and in Asia events are on the march.