Editorial: Christmas, 1943
Drew Pearson’s revelation that contrary to the Allied statement there was not a full agreement at the Cairo Conference comes with the force of a bombshell exploding on this second war Christmas.
According to Mr. Pearson, Prime Minister Churchill opposed the use of Chinese troops in India to reopen the Burma Road. Indian troops are unwilling to make the fight alone unless they are promised independence, to which Churchill cannot commit his government.
The story goes that all the other Allies, Russia, China, and the United States, were agreed, except Britain, and the result was the first serious break between President Roosevelt and the British Prime Minister.
One of the immediate results of the rupture, according to Mr. Pearson, is that the U.S. Chief of Staff, Gen. George Marshall, is to remain at home and a British general will be chosen to lead the Allied invasion of the European continent.
If the Pearson story is correct, we haven’t gotten to the place in the fighting where we can see a victory crowned with a people’s peace – a peace in which the world’s exploited populations in Asia and Europe are to have a chance to develop self-government and freedom.
What we are fighting for abroad, if the British government has its way, is the same old imperialism in which the weak are enslaved to support the strong in wealth and power – a new alignment of nations in which the territories of Japan and Germany are taken away from them and parceled out to new masters of which the chief shall be Britain.
If that is the new peace on earth we fight for, it is not worth our participation and sacrifice.
But the mention of it today is important because it represents abroad a feeling which is shared by many at home with respect to our own domestic problems.
We have in America a great crowd of stand-patters who oppose any gains for the common people at home after this war. They demand segregation as usual and certain jobs and services to be labeled “for whites only.” The ballot in the South is to be reserved for certain people. They flag of the nation is to be supported by a streamer reading “white supremacy.”
There are the selfish, greedy interests at home and abroad who say to the 1943 Christmas spirit – “Come back this time next year, I may have some business for you.” But they lie. They have no earnest desire and longing for peace and good will to all men, and they must be destroyed utterly.
The will of the people of earth is for a peace and a victory for all men. The angels’ song echoing over the centuries cannot be drowned out, it is the chant of hundreds of millions. It must not be delayed or postponed. It cannot be stopped.
It is the world’s Christmas spirit, and it will prevail.