Wisdom for Small Nations

When Norway's Government in Exile declared straight out last year that it would resign the minute Norway was free, and let the people choose new leaders, it set a stiff standard of conduct for homeless governments. Last week a distinguished Norwegian in Exile, Carl J. Hambro, president of Norway's Parliament, added another page to his country's wartime record of realism. Said Hambro:

"Every small nation will have to give up the cherished idea that her influence in world affairs should be just as great as that of any other nation and accept as a fact that there can be no law of unanimity in a regulated international life. It will no longer be admitted that the tiniest little state should have a right of absolute veto and be given the privilege of dictating to great nations, if only in a negative way, what their course of action should be. In any universal organization ... a few great countries will have to bear the burden of carrying out the ultimate decisions. . . . Common men & women will have scant sympathy for those politicians who, for lack of selfdiscipline, give loud utterance to their dark doubts and sinister suspicions. . . . Any attempt to disseminate distrust among those great nations, any appeal to national prejudice, to old jealousies and fears between the big countries, is a menace to every small state."

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