FOREIGN RELATIONS: The Great Blueprint

The U.S. got a big piece of news quite casually last week. The day, suitably, was Memorial Day. After a quick drive to Arlington National Cemetery, Franklin Roosevelt returned to the White House to hold his regular Tuesday press conference. The day was hot. The President faced the 150 newsmen in his shirt sleeves.

Only a few hours before, Secretary of State Cordell Hull had announced that the U.S. had, at last, invited Great Britain, Russia and China to discuss a definite blueprint for a world organization to keep the peace. A correspondent asked a question right down Mr. Roosevelt's alley: "Mr. President, when you were Assistant Secretary of the Navy you supported President Wilson on the League of Nations idea. How do you feel about that now?"

Franklin Roosevelt, obviously sniffing the question with enjoyment, lapsed into his half-confidential, half-professorial manner. Well, he said, you know we are working toward a union of the United Nations, toward the prevention, if we can help it, of another war. But the last time we thought it was the war to end war—we saw it a bit altruistically then. But now, the President said to the correspondents, you've grown a bit older. Some of us, the President added, are inclined to be more cynical—he said he did not include himself in this category.

Blockbuster. The President then quietly dropped his blockbuster. The U.S., he said, has an objective today to join other nations for the general world peace—but without taking away the integrity of the U.S. in any shape, manner or form.

Millions of fervid Roosevelt supporters have assumed and insisted that President Roosevelt is a genuine But the President made nis declaration of "nationalism" with hardly a flicker of a cigaret ash. Having plumped for 100% "integrity," he went on smoothly and solemnly. The nations of the world, said he, have an objective: perhaps they can reach a unanimity which would stop wars before they are started. In a sense, he added, the League of Nations had that very, very great purpose, but that got involved in American politics. That was why he and Secretary of State Hull had been working with Senators on the Foreign Relations Committee and a special committee from the House (see cut). So far, the President added, the consultations had been conducted on a very high plane of nonpartisanship.

Over the Phone. One point the President seemed anxious to make definite: the blueprint shortly to be discussed by the Big Four was just a first draft. The blueprint was a plan to stop aggression, the President said; it did not envision an organization which you would have to call on whenever some country wanted to build a bridge over a creek.

Did this plan follow the League of Nations pattern? You can't follow an old pattern, the President be a 1944 paitein.

^ 4ny1—^_ Altered: You mean like the

Fourteen Points? Oh, no, he said, this plan just contained principles. Would there be a formal conference to thrash out differences? Franklin Roosevelt said he didn't know anything about any conference. Heavens, he added, he could conduct a conversation over the telephone. That was all that there was going to be.