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    "localId": "269702459",
    "label": "Correspondence Between Myron Taylor and President Harry S. Truman, with Attachment",
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    "id": "269702459",
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    "title": "Correspondence Between Myron Taylor and President Harry S. Truman, with Attachment",
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            "logicalDate": "1945-01-01",
            "year": 1945
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    "seq": 3,
    "pageIndex": 0,
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    "ocrText": "EXTRACT\n18th April 1945\nI have read with interest both your account of the valuable\nwork done by the American Relief in Italy and also the interesting\nmemorandum on the Italian situation by an anonymous but obviously\nserious authority. From such knowledge as I have I should not\nquarrel with the general estimate of the position which he gives.\nAs regards the broader world situation I confess that my\ngeneral outlook remains unchanged. I have never personally\nbelieved in a world security organisation \"with teeth in it\".\nI do believe in a standing world organisation for conciliation and for\nthe formation of moral judgments in the light of which the leading\nnations more nearly affected can act with the confidence that world\nopinion is behind them and can secure such support from others as\nthey may be able to do. Once, however, that it is for the organisation\nas such to take executive action you will find, first of all, that when\nit comes to the point all those who are less directly interested will\nplay for delay and for shirking obvious issues and, secondly, that even\nbefore that stage everybody will concentrate very naturally on the\nquestion of voting power. I fear very much that San Francisco may\nlose itself in endless debates as to why India, for instance, should\nnot occupy at least as important a position as China, but should be\nrelegated to the same plane as Cuba or Liberia. One can only hope that\nsomething may come out of San Francisco for the simple reason that a\ncomplete failure would have a profoundly depressing atmosphere on the\nwhole world. But I remain, I regret to say, of the personal opinion,\nthat the less it achieves in the way of a definite organisation based\non the exercise of power by the new League as such, the better its\nchances of making a useful contribution to world peace in the future.\nAs for Poland, one can only hope that between this and April 25th\nsomething may come off to enable poland to be represented. But I am\nafraid that we must face the fact that Russia does not mean to have\nany in Poland or any other adjacent country that is not\nessentially a Totalitarian Communist Government. What Russia means\nby Democracy is Left Wing Totalitarianism. What we call Democracy i.c.\nthefreedom of all parties including the middle and wealthier classes, is\nwhat the Russians call Fascism. If and in so far as this war has been\na war against totalitarianism we can only hope that we have saved\nWestern Europe as well as ourselves from that partifular form of tyranny,\nbut at the cost of leaving Eastern Europe in the hands of one form of it,\nat any rate for the time being.\nARCHIVES AN"
}