AMERICA'S QUEST FOR PEACE

In three lectures given before the University of Virginia, Dexter Perkins makes three very selient points on three very persistent topics. They all concern ""America's Quest for Peace"". The first traces the illusion of pacifism during the Thirties and the false belief that international laws and treaties could subdue aggressors. The others treat of peace through collective security, which Mr. Perkins resents although fully agreeing to its necessity, and peace through disarmament, which he believes possible but only if the acknowledgment of the balance of power is made clear and the status quo prohibits change by way of infiltration or subversion into governments. A cardinal tenet also establishes that give-and-take negotiations, not legal principles, settle disputes without war. All this is coolly and closely reasoned; Mr. Perkins writes with the control and wisdom of an statesman, but while his line of argument is provocative, his conclusions are hardly very different, from those of the Times, or, for that matter, the State Department. Still, a notable ""while paper"".