Freedom for the individual and its own way of life for each nation cannot be preserved except by national self-government. Peace cannot be preserved except by some super-national authority able to deal with matters which are the legitimate interest of more than one nation. The most urgent and most important technical problem in political science today is that of defining the spheres of national and of super-national authority respectively. What matters are the legitimate interests of more than one nation. Three things are clearly so: Boundaries. Armaments. Colonies…

Two world wars should have convinced all who are prepared to face facts of the need for a radical change in the government of the world, of the need to establish a super-national authority with real power with a defined field of action… Can the United Nations Organisation be made into the super-national authority without which civilisation is likely to perish? The answer depends on how the principal powers of the world decide to use that instrument... are they prepared to pay the price of peace, to subject themselves with all others to the rule of law?

Key quote

‘In breaking of belief in human good.

In slavedom of mankind to the machine.

In havoc of hideous tyranny withstood.

And terror of an atomic doom foreseen.

Deliver us from ourselves.’

Litany of the Lost by Siegfried Sassoon (first published in the Observer)

Talking point

Masses of Korean people are angered over the fact that the American Military Government is showing favouritism towards the extreme right wing party and is virtually pushing aside the popular movements which are grouped on the left.

‘Blunders May Provoke Civil War in Korea’ by Gordon Walker