Bunche Cites Discrimination as Liability

Racial discrimination is now America's greatest liability in international affairs, and for this reason, if no other, we must speed its eradication, Ralph Bunche said in a CRIMSON interview Saturday.

Bunche, who is director of the Trusteeship division of the United Nations Secretariat, admitted this acceleration might cause "a few difficulties at first" but insisted that the South will accept further elimination of segregation without much trouble.

South Would Accept De-Segregation

Depreciating talk of violence in the South should the Supreme Court bar segregation in schools, he labeled as "political talk" the threats of Governor Herman Talmadge of South Carolina that he would abolish the public school system in such a case.

"You can't go anywhere in the world today where people don't ask you about the problem of discrimination," Bunche declared. "Quite apart from the internal costs of lack of unity, bad consciences, loss of manpower and diseased minds, our racial problem is costing us dearly in international prestige."

Bunche was at the University for a few hours on Saturday to deliver the keynote address at the United Nations Council's Second Annual High School Conference and Model UN. Introduced by President Pusey, Bunche outlined the work and problems confronting the international organization.

In the interview, Bunche cautioned against the rising tide of anti-UN propaganda in this country. "This sort of talk has already weakened support for the UN in some important places. If it is not stemmed, we face the possibility of a younger generation growing up in a period of fearful ultra-nationalism. This could create a society which would be very dangerous in the world today."

Charter Revision Unnecessary

He disagreed with those who placed great hopes in charter revision at the 1955 conference. "It would be difficult to point to any one charter change which could improve the UN's operations appreciably."

Bunche called it "misleading and harmful to encourage the attitude that mechanical changes are the answer to our problems. The present answer is to give the UN as it is now as strong a backing as possible."

Neither did he fell that a United Nations security force was the answer. For at present, the political strains between the major powers would prevent this. If you get the necessary improvement in relations, then the need for such a police force would diminish, and the UN action should then be to press for world disarmament."

Questioned on the Secretariat's present position toward the stymied Korean Political Conference, Bunche said "We are now hoping that something will come out of the Geneva conference. The germ of hope in this meeting lies in the fact that this is the first time the major powers concerned in the war have come together for high-level talks. Although the UN itself is not engaged in these talks, the Secretariat is hoping they will prove fruitful.