ACCORD OF NATIONS FAVORED IN PLANK ON FOREIGN POLICY
‘Participation in cooperative organization’ provided ‘to attain permanent peace’
Taft predicts adoption; declaration calls for seeking ‘economic stability,’ pledges constitutional procedure
By James B. Reston
Foreign policy plank
Chicago, Illinois –
The text of the draft of the Republican plank on foreign policy as approved by the Foreign Affairs Committee follows:The Republican Party pledges:
Prosecution of the war to total victory against all our enemies in full cooperation with the United Nations, and the speedy return of our Armed Forces.
Support of our Armies and the maintenance of our Navy under the competent and trained direction of our General Staff and Office of Naval Operations without civilian interference, with every civilian resource.
Organization of the home front to the maximum of our civilian resources.
We declare our relentless aim to win the war against all our enemies: (1) for our own American security and welfare; (2) to make and keep the Axis powers impotent to renew tyranny and attack; (3) for the attainment of peace and freedom based on justice and security.
We shall seek to achieve such aims through organized international cooperation and not by joining a world state.
We favor responsible participation by the United States in post-war cooperative organization among sovereign nations to prevent military aggression and to attain permanent peace with organized justice in a free world.
Such organization should develop effective cooperative means to direct peace forces to prevent or repel military aggression. Pending this, we pledge continuing collaboration with the United Nations to assure these ultimate objectives.
We believe, however, that peace and security do not depend upon the sanction of force alone, but should prevail by virtue of reciprocal interests and spiritual values recognized in these security agreements. The treaties of peace should be just; the nations which are the victims of Axis aggression should be restored to sovereignty and self-government; and the organized cooperation of the nations should concern itself with basic causes of world disorder. It should promote a world opinion to influence the nations to right conduct, develop international law and maintain an international tribunal to deal with justiciable disputes.
We shall seek, in our relations with other nations, conditions calculated to promote worldwide economic stability, not only for the sake of the world, but also to the end that our own people may enjoy a high level of employment in an increasingly prosperous world.
We shall keep the American people informed concerning all agreements with foreign nations. In all of these undertakings we favor the widest consultation of the gallant men and women in our Armed Forces who have a special right to speak with authority on behalf of the security and liberty for which they fight. We shall sustain the Constitution of the United States in the attainment of our international aims; and pursuant to the Constitution of the United States any treaty or agreement to attain such aims made on behalf of the United States with any other nation or any association of nations, shall be made only by and with the advice and consent of the Senate of the United States, provided two-thirds of the Senators present concur.
We shall at all times protect the essential interests and resources of the United States.
Chicago, Illinois –
The Republican Party platform will favor “participation by the United States in post-war cooperative organization among sovereign nations to prevent military aggression and to attain permanent peace.”
The party’s Foreign Affairs Committee, headed by Senator Warren Austin (R-VT), has unanimously approved a plank which calls on the future world peace organization to “develop effective cooperative means to direct peace forces to prevent or repel military aggression.”
Pending the formation of this world peace organization, the plank recommends that the United States should “pledge continuing collaboration with the United Nations.”
Senator Robert A. Taft, chairman of the party’s Resolutions Committee, to which the platform will be submitted later this morning, said he was certain that the foreign affairs plank as recommended by Senator Austin’s committee would be adopted.
Objectives of peace treaties
After stating that the party favored “prosecution of the war to total victory against all our enemies in full cooperation with the United Nations and the speedy return of our Armed Forces,” the plank emphasized that justice in the writing of the peace was the essence of realism.
The Foreign Affairs Committee said:
We believe that peace and security do not depend upon the sanction of force alone, but should prevail by virtue of reciprocal interests and spiritual values recognized in these security agreements.
The treaties of peace should be just; the nations which are the victims of Axis aggression should be restored to sovereignty and self-government, and the organized cooperation of the nations should concern itself with basic causes of world disorder.
Elaborating on “cooperation,” the committee continued:
We shall seek, in our relations with other nations, conditions calculated to promote worldwide economic stability, not only for the sake of the world, but also the end that our own people may enjoy a high level of employment in an increasingly prosperous world. We shall develop Pan-American solidarity.
Open negotiations promised
The Wilsonian doctrine of “open covenants openly arrived at” was also supported in the plank which, pledging the party to keep the American people informed concerning all agreements with other nations, said.
In all these consultations, we favor the widest consultation of the gallant men and women in our Armed Forces, who have a special right to speak with authority on behalf of the security and liberty for which they fight.
Taking cognizance of reports that attempts might be made to submit peace agreements to Congress in the form of a joint resolution instead of to the Senate for ratification requiring a two-thirds vote, the committee put into the plank this declaration:
We shall sustain the Constitution of the United States in the attainment of our international aims and, pursuant to the Constitution, any treaty made on behalf of the United States with any other nation or association of nations, shall be made only by and with the advice and consent of the Senate of the United States, provided two-thirds of the Senators present concur.
Roosevelt plan compared
At first glance, there seems to be little difference between the organization which the Republican platform suggests and the world security body outlined by President Roosevelt and Secretary Hull.
The plank makes it clear that the Republicans, like the Democrats, do not favor the creation of any superstate, but are willing to see the United States cooperate in an association of sovereign nations.
No attempt is made to define the word “sovereignty” and the general impression here is that the party is not prepared to define, ahead of time, the specific conditions under which it would favor war or state specifically how far it would be prepared to go in applying sanctions.