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T he world is unhappy. l t is un-
happy because it doesn 't k now
where it is going and because it
senses that,
if
it knell'. it would
discover that it was heading for
disaster.
o known projcct of either country
wi ll be stopped o r s lowed by it. In
fact, incen tive will be provided fo r
go ing a hea d with wea po ns p ro–
grams not covered unde r the limi ta–
tions of th e new agreemen l.
T hus the insane a rms spi ra l, in a
pe rverse twist, has only picked up
new momen tum. In a speech befo re
the Uni ted Nations Genera l Assem–
bly in la te October, American Sena–
to r Stuart Symington revea led that
the United Sta tes a lready has a nu–
clea r weapons stockpile equal to
6 15,365 " Hiroshima-s ize" a tomic
bombs. each equiva len! lo 20,000
tons o f TNT.
The former secreta ry o f the Air
F o rce a lso to ld U .N . de lega t es :
"There are now six members o f th e
nuclear club - six scorpions
in
the
bot t le instead o f th e o r ig in a l
two ... a nd as each month passes it
becomes more proba ble that soon
there may well be 20 scorpions in
the same bottl e."
Thus, as the wo rld turns the cor–
ner into 1975, t he nuclear a rms race,
fa r from subsiding, shows every sign
o f renewed growth - o r " progress
toward oblivion."
The Year of the Great
Conference
1f 1974 saw no end to the arms
spiral, it ushered in the era of t he
grea t conference - mass spectacles
of politica l a nd techn ical experts
gathered in gian t world conclaves to
discuss maj or issues affecting the en–
ti re huma n race.
6
- Presrdent Valery Grscard
d ·Estarng of France
But uni versal repre enta tion is
not synonymous wi th success - and,
in fact, may be inverse ly propor–
tiona l to it. T he mo re people a nd
the g rea ter the number o f na tions
attend ing these conferences. the
mo re cultura l. po li tica l a nd ideo–
logica l d ifferences seem to manifes t
themselves.
The growing ri ft between the de–
veloped and und erdevc loped na–
t ion doomed from the beginni ng
the first-ever Wo rld Popu la tion
Conference held in Bucharest, Ro–
maní a in August. The same d ivisive
fac to r made a polí tica! s hambles out
of the initial Wo rl d Food Confer–
ence th ree months la ter in Rome .
Th ese two conferences drew more
pu bl ic at t ention tha n a third maj or
interna tiona l parl ey - the Law of
the Sea Conference held d uring the
summer in Caracas, Venezuela. Bu t
it was the !a lte r. with its near total
a bsence of concre te results, which
revea led the m en t a l pove r ty of
humans to a rri ve a l mutua lly ac–
cepta ble solu tions to common prob–
lems.
For ten long weeks. 5,000 dele–
ga tes from 150 nat ions a nd regions
we re assembled in Ca racas - the
bigges t inte rn a ti ona l co nfere nce
eve r held. T hey were there fo r one
reason: to try to come to grips with
the growing problem of a narchy on
the h igh seas. At issue were confli c t–
ing claims to territo ria l water limits,
the size and jurisdic t ion of o ff-shore
"economic zones," and proposa ls to
esta blis h gu ide li nes for ex ploi ting
the ma rine a nd minera l wea lth of
the oceans.
Day after day in Caraca , 90
mimeograph operators, slav ing over
27 machin es aro und t he clock,
churned ou t 250,000 pages of docu–
men ts - speeches. position papers,
tech nical reports - every 24 hours.
True to the complex ity of in ter–
national meetings. a batte ry of
t ra ns la to rs and typists p repared
each document in three, sometimes
five "working languagcs' ' o f the con–
fe rence. Th e Ch inese language
pre ented a un ique problem. how–
ever. Since the U. . staff fa iled to
b ring to Caracas Ch incsc type–
writers with their complex and cum–
bersome keyboa rds. all documents
in Ch inese had to be laboriously in–
scri bed by hand.
At th e end of the 2Yl month ses–
sion, the
lisr
of document · a lone ran
to more than 160 pages.
What were t he resul ts o f ten
wecks of speeches, deba tes. pro–
cedural arguments and poli tica l bar–
gai ning? Not much. l 'm afrai d . A
rcporter for the
Wa/1 Srreer Journal
summed things up on the last day of
the Caracas episode:
" In ten fu ll weeks t he representa–
tives of 150 countries a t the bigges t
i nt e rn at iona l meeti ng in h is to ry
ha ven' t even gotten down to ha rd
nego tiations. They've j ust been stat–
ing a nd resta ti ng th eir positions.
" But this isn' t discouraging lo the
5.000 di plomats and expen s... .
Drafti ng a trea ty acceptable to the
myriad na tu ral a nd business interest
invo lved js a task of monumenta l
complexity, and many of the conference
participa ntsseem res igned to making
the law ofthesea t heir lives' wo rk."
The conclusion then of the con–
fe rence, according to the
J ournal's
Barry Newma n:
"After 70 days of talk abou t a law
to govern the oceans and their re–
sources, the conference is making
on ly one firm decision :
to hold more
COt!(erences."
Th us, while delega tes to world
confe rences argue sacred principi es
of nat ional self-interes t, mill ions
sta rve. world popula tion surges on
PLAIN TRUTH
January
1975