Imbalance Sheet

Last week, as the U.N.'s General Assembly gathered in New York, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles gave a report on the state of the world. The gist: not good.

For each modest success on Dulles' list, there were two or more major frustrations or setbacks; every Guatemala was more than offset by a Geneva. In each instance the small advances had been made when free men stood boldly together against Communism; the backward steps were invariably the result of division and fear in the free world--attitudes that the Communists never fail to exploit. Among the points of frustration on Dulles' list:

P: "Then the Soviet Union invented a new condition." (The Austrian peace treaty.) P: "The votes of Communist Deputies . . . shelved the EDC." (The problem of France.)

P:"This proposal was rejected by the Communist side." (Korean unification.)

P: "These efforts were met by flat refusal by the Soviet Union to discuss our proposals on their merits." (World disarmament.)

In this atmosphere of futility, the indomitable Foster Dulles, soon to enplane for the London Conference (see FOREIGN NEWS), was still hopeful. "We [of the U.S.] believe that international peace is an attainable goal," he said. "That is the premise that underlies all our planning. We propose never to desist, never to admit discouragement, but confidently and steadily so to act that peace becomes for us a sustaining principle of action."

The Secretary had one item of real progress in his report: President Eisenhower's plan for a world atomic bank for peace was nearing fulfillment, even though the Soviet Union had rejected it.* As the next step, Dulles proposed a four-point agenda for 1955, with or without Red cooperation: 1) creation of an international atomic agency, 2) calling an international scientific conference to dis cuss the atom as an agent for peace, 3) opening of a reactor training school in the U.S. to teach students from abroad the working principles of atomic energy, and 4) an invitation to foreign medical men to participate in U.S. cancer research through atomic techniques.

"Even though much is denied us by the Soviet negation," said Dulles, ". . . much remains that can be done. There is denied the immense relaxation of tension which might have occurred had the Soviet Union been willing to begin to cooperate with other nations in . . . what offers so much to fear, so much to hope. Nevertheless, there is much to be accomplished in the way of economic and humanitarian gains. There is no miracle to be wrought overnight. But a program can be made and vitalized to assure that atomic energy can bring to millions a better way of life. To achieve that result is our firm resolve."

* The day before Dulles' speech, when his subject was announced, the Kremlin broke a five-month silence with a proposal to resume discussions of the plan. In the U.N. Andrei Vishinsky insisted that the Soviet Union was eager to participate.

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