MR LANSING RESIGNS.

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 40, 16 February 1920, Page 5

MR LANSING RESIGNS.

PRESIDENT'S PREROGATIVE. A DISGUSTED AMBASSADOR. ffßy Cable.—Press Association.—Copyright.) WASHINGTON, Febmary 15. Mr. Robert Lansing, Secr«3tary of State, has resigned. President Wilson ' has accepted his resignation. Mr. Wilson wrote to Mr. Lansing on February 7, asking if it were true that j Mr. Lansing had called a Cabinet meeting during Mr. Wilson's illness, and pointing out that no one save the Presi- ' dent had authority to do this. Mr. l_ansing replied: "Yes. Do you think 1 failed in my loyalty to you?" and tendered his resignation. The Press discloses that the disagreement between Mr. Lansing and Mr. Wilson began in 1917, when Mr. Lansing issuexl a statement that the United States was steadily drifting to war. Further ' disagreements occurred in Paris, when, j in Mr. Wilson's absence, Mr. Lansing tentatively agreed to abandon the pre>vision for a League of Nations in order to allow greater speed in concluding peace. The Bullitt revelations, in which it was disclosed that Mr. Lansing did not approve the League of Nations, were a further factor. It is alleged that at the first Cabinet meeting which Mr. Lansing called complaint was made that none knew the condition of the President, although rumours were abroad that Mr. Wilson was non compos mentis. Mr. Lansing did not see the President after the first day of his illness. The Secretary of the Interior, Mr. Franklin Lane, has caused a sensation in the capital by announcing that he was equally responsible for the Cabinet meetings which Mr. Lansing called. It is believed that Mr. Lane will also resign. Comments in the Press on Mr. Lansing's resignation stress Mr. Wilson's habit of ignoring his Cabinet officers, and utilising Colonel House as special ambassador abroad instead of Mr. Lansing. Despite the loss of power in his left arm and leg, Mr. Wilson expects to preside at Cabinet- meetings soon. The tone of his letter to Mr. Lansing is taken as indicating that he is in full possession of his former strength of intellect and capacity for initiative. The Press states that the resignation of Mr. Fletcher (T'nited States Ambassador to Mexico) is due to disgust with the Mexican policy of the President, with which Mr. Lansing was also dissatisfied. (A. and N.Z. Cable.)