Jackson Advocate

Bunche Sees Hope For Peace In Middle East

BOSTON, Mass., Dec. 5. - Dr. Ralph Bunche, United Nations undersecretary and a chief architect of both the 1949 and 1956 peace arrangements in the Middle East, expressed measured optimism here that hard-won-peace now can be preserved.

He based his estimate largely on the effectiveness of the small non-battle-tested United Nations army which has so radically altered the situation on the once-terror-ridden Egyptian-Israeli border.

He warned, however, that the work of the UN Emergency Force and of the older Mixed Armistice Commission was only a means, not an end.

"These means purchase time," Dr. Bunche said, "but time alone will not solve" the problems of the Middle East. He implied that more active work must be done on solving territorial, refugee, water rights, and coastal access problems if the present calm period is not to be wasted as was the 1949-56 period.

Purposefulness Noted

Dr. Bunche told a Ford Hall forum audience that had nearly filled Jordan Hall for the George W. Coleman Memorial Lecture that it was a remarkable-and to many skeptics totally unexpected-purposefulness on the part of the UN that had prevented the spread of the Suez battle "into world war."

He further ventured the opinion that "the American public did not realize how close we were to world war last November."

Much of the renowned Negro statesman's lecture was devoted to tracing the five-day history of the formation of the first truly UN army and to recounting the adventures of its 10-nation uniform soldiers.

Dr. Bunche averred that the lightning formation of UNEF and the ahead-of-schedule clearing of the Suez Canal "should slay and slay for good the canard that the United Nations cannot act."