Time to Make News

Prime Minister Churchill has been yearning publicly for a conference "at the summit" with the Soviet leaders. This week he and Anthony Eden are coming to Washington, the true summit of international power, the place where the most progress can be made toward settlement of the world's most urgent problems.

Settlement with the Communists is most unlikely. But much of the recent Communist advance and menace to the near future is created less by Red strength than by anti-Red weakness.

The disunity and indecision of the free world have become increasingly apparent in recent months. Items: P: There is no agreed approach to the Far East. The lack of policy, so obvious in the anti-Communist position in the Geneva talks on Indo-China, extends over the whole area. It includes British recognition of Red China, divergences over Japan's future and the shameful aftermath of the Korean truce.

P:In Europe, EDC's prospects become dimmer by the month, and no plan to replace it is in sight. Behind this general failure lie some specific failures: the deterioration of France, the growing apathy of West Germany, the deadlock over Trieste.

P:In the Middle East, the U.S. and Britain have failed to arrive at several important decisions that are long overdue. Iranian oil could start flowing again if Britain and Iran could be induced to agree on such minor issues as whether a new Anglo-American-Iranian oil company should be incorporated in Iran or Britain. U.S. aid to Egypt is postponed pending settlement of the Suez Canal issue with Cairo.

Most of the items on this huge agenda press most urgently, yet Washington's advance "positioning" of the Churchill-Eden visit stresses relaxation. Secretary Dulles says that the talks will be like those of men of affairs gathered in a smoking room. President Eisenhower, at his press conference, said that the Anglo-American alliance is like a bridge across the Potomac: thousands use it every day, and that is not news, but let the bridge fall, and it would instantly be news. He and Churchill are not trying to make news but to keep the bridge strong.

The plain fact is that the bridge is sadly in need of major repair. It did not suddenly collapse; rather, its more serious defects have gradually become apparent.

Basic public policy in Britain and the U.S.

is diverging more and more. Churchill could--if he would--shift the British direction. Eden, when Churchill retires, will find such a shift far more difficult to make. Washington is impatient for the aging Churchill to quit the scene, but before he does, he has one more historic task that he can perform better than any other living man: the restoration of an effective U.S.-British alliance.

This week brings a magnificent opportunity that may not come again. The hour is late--too late for complacent smoking room conversation. This is a week when news should be made.

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