For an International Free Press

Prevention of future wars through guarantees of international press freedom, a proposal which had been seconded by A.P. General Manager Kent Cooper (TIME, Nov. 22), was again urged: by former Under Secretary of State Sumner Welles.

Said Welles: ". . . Every nation which becomes a member of the [postwar] international organization to be set up should be obligated, as a condition of its adherence, to show that its citizens are guaranteed . . . freedom of religion, of speech and of information."

Next day Columnist Walter Lippmann agreed that "this is a great and necessary objective" and that each nation should perhaps at least guarantee that it will "make freely available to its people the official utterances of other States."

Lippmann does not condemn treaty clauses, but thinks an ounce of good example is worth a pound of law. Said he: "Our own best contribution to the great cause of freedom of the press will be to avoid any self-righteous assumption that we here have achieved freedom of the press in its perfected and final form. We have not. . . . The more convincingly we show that the freedom we enjoy produces good results, promoting the saving truth rather than debasing public sentiment, the more we shall serve the cause of the freedom of the press."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.