U.N. Police Force

Before the problem of the Suez Canal returns completely to its pre-October condition in the hands of the negotiators, it would be well to remember that something quite extraordinary and unprecedented occurred in the United Nations General Assembly during debates on the Israeli-French-British attack: the creation of a special U.N. Emergency Force, the first truly international police force in history. Its scope, of course, was and still is limited; but its significance, if it succeeds in Sinai and Suez, is broad indeed. As the armed representatives of the will of the U.N., the few thousand soldiers now in Egypt's desert could become the nucleus of a permanent U.N. Police Force--a force which would be an important instrument in giving U.N. decisions the strength of law.

Naturally, one would argue that U.N.E.F. hasn't really had very much to do--yet. After some hesitation, the invading powers themselves made their own decision to withdraw, reacting more to the force of world opinion and the threat of Soviet 'volunteers' than to the first, plane-load of Norwegian regulars. And, as Mr. Gaitskell pointed out last week, it is a real question whether U.N.E.F. ever would have come into existence if the contributing nations--including Commonwealth countries--had expected to fight the British army. The real task facing the U.N. troops is really just beginning to appear: to make sure that no conditions are put in the way of clearing the Suez Canal, and to become one means by which the U.N. can impose a solution of some sort on that area--perhaps as permanent border guards in an international corridor separating Israel from Egypt, if the General Assembly follows the suggestion of the British Labor Party.

Such a force would be close to the original intention of the U.N. Charter, which provided for a Military Staff Committee under the Security Council which could, at any time, organize troops to carry out decisions of the Council. Big Power disagreements and the absence of disarmament prevented the formation of that particular Committee, but recent events, both in the Middle East and in Hungary, indicate that a permanent U.N. force is perhaps needed as much before disarmament as it would be after. One cannot help speculating what might have happened in Hungary had a U.N. Police Force, composed mainly of Asian neutrals in this case, entered Budapest before the Soviets returned. The point is not that the U.N. force could have fought off the Soviets, but that its mere presence might have forstalled the bloody return. In this case, a U.N. force was needed, speedily.

Certainly, a U.N. Police Force would be no cure-all. But it would be wrong to say that it could do no more than the member states themselves could do in any given situation. For if the U.N. is effective on political questions mainly as a place to express world public opinion, then an international police force would be one way to give this opinion unified and immediately available backing. If it were composed of small nations and neutral nations, it would be somewhat immune from Cold War commitments and could, at least in part, help make the U.N. something more than a world debating society.