The conference of representatives of the Allied Governments at war with Nazism has unanimously adopted the principles en-undated in the declaration signed by President Roosevelt and Mr. Winston Churchill, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during their Atlantic meeting. and has started the work of reconstruction by approving a resolution which sets out under four headings the most urgent tasks to be.tackled when peace is restored. The wav has now been cleared for experts to work out details of what will be needed. No information has yet been received as to the nature of the discussions which will follow. But from the Character of the four paragraphs of the resolution adopted, it mav be deduced that the work will be divided into two sections: that reaviring immediate attention. and that which takes the long view and envisages. a world in which ce-operation will take the place of unfriendly rivalry. and which, even at the cost of some sacrifice to individual nations, will hold out the hone that never again will there be even a threat of any catastrophe similar to that with which pesceloving peoples have been over-taken. Paragranhs one. two, and four of the resolution can be summarized as preparing the wav for ce-ordination of the supply of foodstuffs, raw materials, and prime necessities to the countries now occupied by the Nazis: to organize a pool of resources for the period of transition from war to peace; and to prepare estimates of the needs of each nation, with their order of priority. This last clause, it will be seen. is an elaboration of para-graves one and. two; without it the coordination of simplies and the pooling of resources might be made useless.
Paragraph three, while covering the immediate needs, also extends over a wider field. It expresses the readiness of all the Allies to collaborate to the fullest extent of their power in meeting the most urgent demands of reconstruction. and implies also a willingness to continue that collaboration after the immediate needs have been satisfied, and the world is enabled to sit back among the tidied ruins of its old environment from into the duly of policing the present moment, the British Empire and United States of America have been understand, and, therefore, used until their change of heart and mind has been proved.
Three reservations, which hardly merit the title, may be noted in the London conversations. The first was by the Netherlands and concerned the ce-ordination. of food and other supplies to the Allied nations.. With rear foresight the Netherlands Governmentenced organizing supplies for their own ple some time ago, and quite naturally do not wish any ce-ordinated scheme to interfere with the working of their own. Paragraph two of the resolution, however, covers this fear, stating "that while each of the Allied Governments and authorities will be primarily responsible for making provision for the economic needs of its own peoples, their respective plans should be ce-ordinated in the spirit of inter-Allied collaboration... Which means to say that while there is ey desire to encourage rehabilitation by individual governments, there is a danger which all would wish to avoid that individual rehabilitation may tend to be at the expense of the whole. The second reservation concerned the wording of the Atlantic Charter—"They will endeavour, with due respect to their existing obligations, to further the enjoyment by all states, great or small, victor or vanquished, of access, on equal terms, to the trade and to the raw materials of the world..." The Netherlands Foreign Minister drew attention to the implications of the words which are here stressed in italic type, and reminded the conference that after the last war "existing obligations" were allowed to assume such importance that they became a serious obstacle in the path of international trade. The warning is one for which the~conference should be grateful, though the statement made in Point Five of the Charter, the "desire to bring about the fullest collaboration of all nations in the economic field," might-be construed to meet it. Last of the reservations was made by the Soviet Russian representative who, while voting for the resolution, reserved the. right to put forth certain proposals for equal representation on the controlling board of reconstruction and suggested' that plans and proposals should be submitted to the various governments for their observations before they were submitted to the Allied conference. His motives are understandable. M. Maisky, as Ambassador to Britain, would not have the same plenipotentiary powers as most of the other representatives, and he would naturally not wish to be placed in the position of having to commit his government to courses of action of which they might eventually disapprove. These reservations cannot be termed in any way rifts in the Allied unity, but show that the problems of the future are being approached with proper realism.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.