A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
THE projected visit of the Secretary-General of the United Nations to Moscow opens up interesting possibilities. Mr. Trygve Lie is apparently making the journey on his own responsibility, but it is usual and natural for the Secretary-General to visit the capitals of the principal United Nations States from time to time ; Mr. Lie has, in fact, just been in London and Paris. At Moscow he will need to be circumspect. To give encouragement to Russian proposals which the principal Western States could not entertain might make matters worse rather than better. The visit may, incidentally, be a little inconveniently timed. The Western Foreign Ministers are about to meet, and there has been some sugges- tion that after their discussions had reached a certain point they might invite M. Vyshinsky to join them. Mr. Trygve Lie's talks might fit in with that plan or cut across it. It is rather a pity in any case that Mr. Lie in his talks to the Press should have underlined the importance of his visit by insisting that the choice was between co-operation through the United Nations and a Third World War. It is not at all to be concluded that if the United Nations is not rehabilitated war must result. If those were the only two alterna- tives the Atlantic Treaty and the action being taken under it would have to be regarded not as a safeguard against war but simply as a safeguard against defeat in war. Mr. Lie is getting near the end of his first term of office as Secretary-General. It seems likely that his appointment will be renewed, owing to the difficulty of achieving any agreement on a successor.
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