[matter omitted]
The decisions of the assembly in regard to the different applications for admission, and the opposition to the USSR and its satellites, have been widely published in Switzerland. I cannot say that I am disappointed at the result, so far as Ireland is concerned, for a favourable vote by the competent Organisation at the present time might, for us, be anything but a gain. The discussions have one good result; they show that we have many friends. But several general staffs must at present be reconsidering their general defence schemes, as well as their local defence schemes, and Irish territory and ports and air must be largely endowed with question-marks. Ireland outside UNO would be a somewhat different problem for our neighbours and others from Ireland within the organisation. Not that the organisation as at present constituted could act as such in a major conflict, i.e., in a conflict between the Great Powers; but the 'Little Assembly' might prove eventually to be a clever idea, if it developed, for voluntary action and solidarity against aggression. The general atmosphere can hardly be considered to have improved of late. Political unrest is killing economic reconstruction. A dispute in a cabbage-patch could grow to world dimensions. And there are many dangerous cabbage-patches in Europe, Asia and the near and middle east. Surprise is also a factor to be reckoned with; and supplies, the protection of governments, key departments, etc., and the civil population, and the institution of anti-sabotage measures, are amongst the problems requiring much thinking-out and organisation beforehand. The Foreign Ministers' Conference in London does not open in a hopeful atmosphere. In my view, the main divergencies between the Great Powers must unfortunately keep on growing, for the big interests of the western and eastern blocks are definitely opposed. Soviet interests can only develop at the expense of the others. The issues seem now as definitely knit as they were before 1914, when German policy challenged the supremacy of the seas, and before 1939 when Italy, by her Abyssinian venture, tangled her lines with British lines in the Mediterranean, and Germany set up her enormous armaments.