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Urging the speedy establishment of a world union, Ralph Barton Perry '98, Edgar Pierce Professor of Philosophy, addressed 1,200 delegates at the New England Council's third wartime conference Thursday night.
In advocating the adoption of the international organization now in its formulative stages, Professor Perry predicted that it would take generations to produce a workable peace.
He heartily endorsed the insistence of the major powers on a veto privilege. America will be unwilling, asserted Professor Perry, to trust to an international order in which the United States may be outvoted by 40 or 50 scattered countries, the management of conquered territories for which many American soldiers gave their lives.
Because the United Nations must deal immediately with the problems of peace, they must use the methods now at hand. Politics, Professor Perry said, cannot and will not disappear from the international scene nor will a New Order be inaugurated at the close of the present war.
"We, as Americans, must not forget," he said, "that when the Far East takes the place of Europe as the main theatre of war, we are going to feel about the islands of the Pacific, the coast of China, and the countries of southeastern Asia as Soviet Russia feels about Finland, the Baltic states, and the Balkans."
If Americans are not careful, Professor Perry warned, they will find themselves insisting on abstract justice afar but perfectly willing to use power politics on issues closer to home involving questions more vital to the interests of the Western Hemisphere.
Plan is Imperfect
Although he does not consider the present proposal for a world organization and court an ideal solution, Professor Perry recommended its speedy adoption to avoid postwar anarchy and civil wars. This would be an encouraging step, he said, towards a more perfect organization in years to come.
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