Change of Tactics

It had become a routine question at every presidential press conference: were there any plans for another Big Three meeting? Invariably, the President had ducked it. Last week Harry Truman answered it--with a flat No.

The President went on to explain. He was not in favor of special conferences, he said, and never had been. It was special conferences which wrecked the League of Nations, and he wanted the United Nations Organization to work. Therefore UNO would take over matters previously transacted at Big Three meetings. If UNO works as it should, said the President, there would be no need for any other international conferences. And he thought UNO could take over within 90 days.

Some Washington newsmen, who knew that dickering for another Big Three meeting had gone on as recently as six weeks ago, were taken aback. Pundit Walter Lippmann wrote an angry column taking the President to task for another "offhand remark." In a querulous tone he asked whether the President intended to turn over General MacArthurs administration of Japan to the UNO Security Council--an eleven-nation body in which five nations have an unchallengeable veto.

But there was ample evidence that the President had carefully considered his remarks in advance. They were clearly in line with the Truman-Attlee-King atomic bomb statement that UNO, if it is to work, must be entrusted with important matters. There was no indication that the occupation policy in Japan would be changed, in the near future.

The President's statement cheered all those who were tired of the secretive, paternalistic atmosphere of Big Three meetings and who wanted some kind of international organization to get going.

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