INTERNATIONAL COUNCILS

The first meeting of the year of the International Council at Phillips Brooks House is a fitting time to say a word or two about the widespread laxness with which most American undergraduates consider, or fail to consider, international affairs. For years the United States in its diplomatic policy has considered herself in a state of "Splendid isolation." At the present time, changes in the financial structure of the world have given impetus to the idea that perhaps America is not so isolated a place after all.

It is not fair to compare the knowledge of international affairs possessed by typical students at home and abroad, or to place an indictment on the American student for being uninformed on present-day diplomatic problems. Can the American undergraduate who knows about places within his own nation satisfy himself with this knowledge, which is purely national in character? Should he shut his eyes completely to everything labelled international?

American students are not in college because of a feeling that the education derived therefrom will enable them to build up a nation that needs their help. There is the feeling, all too frequently, that American luxury and case are here, and we are here to enjoy them. We have no Hitler organizing us to overthrow what is considered an inadequate governmental regime. As University students we are not organized into student Fascist societies, to whom the responsibility for building a nation is assigned. Few if any Harvard students, for example, are much distressed over the fact that in the present situation of Indian affairs it is a question of approximately one-fifth of the world's population under the direct control of an outside power.

As an example near at home, the group of Russian students studying at Harvard and at Technology are here not entirely for the pleasures of the University. More important than that is the idea that their education will be put directly to the service of their country. The knowledge derived here by Americans is largely to be used later on for their own profit, but there is no direct call for the building of the nation.

It is placing an unfair indictment on Americans to deplore the fact that they are not clearly studying for the purpose of strengthening the United States. This does not, however, prevent them from showing interest in the outside nations which are being built up by students. The International Council gives to all the University a rare opportunity to learn about international affairs. It allows the student to apply the economics and government which he has learned to the many contemporary international problems.