The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. MONDAY, MARCH 7, 1921. THE OUTSIDER.

Auckland Star, Volume LII, Issue 56, 7 March 1921, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

MONDAY, MARCH 7, 1921. THE OUTSIDER.

For the. cause th<it lacks assistance. For the icrong i'iat needs resistance, For the future in tlie distance, And the good that ire <mh do.

'I'ae European Aliics or America, struggling to reconstruct a broken world, will rind little encouragement in the inaugural address of Mr. Warren j Harding, who to-day in the chair of Washington, Lincoln. Roosevelt, and Wilson. The time railed for a statesman like utteraiK-e, but ttie address was! uninspiring. America remain? aloof i the Peace Treaty, ami thrrp is nothing ! in our summary of Mr. Jlarding's speech u> show how he intends t.> deal with the problem. Kurope i< greatly in need: of' American backing in her councils and policy, but Mr. Harding does not send any heartening message of relief. He talks in p-cneralitii's. The country, he say?, is "ready to resist any attempted reversion of cultivation," and is "ready to enter into association with the nations for conference and counsel which j wonld not impair I'nited States sorer- < e'grrt.y." He pledges himself 'to reoon ■ ' mend a way to approximate disarmament," but he does not mention the method that America'? associates hs.-e devised for dealing with this and other world problems—the league of Nations. The only movement for disarmament and world peace that America will j.iin will be an Amencjin movement. It may he argued that in taking up this attr-1 tude Mr. Harding is only acting in accordance with 'ii> campaign pledges; and the -wishes of bis countrymen; tbat Mr. Wilson's policy wns su'jm;ttivi to the electors and overwhelmingly rejected. This does not make the whole situation any less to Europe. The mountainous fact remains that America pin her hand to the .plough and then turned back. She helped to win the war and construct the settle ment, and now she stands asUTe and lets her war-worn associates shoulder the responsibility and expense of enforcing the Treaty and furthering the world's peace. Morally America has no right to remain outs.de. The best that can be said for Mr. Harding is that; he may T>e meaning to do some- i thing, and U trying to construct a bridge -by which he <jin pass from the Republican campaign utter-, ances to his administration's duty to the] country ami the world. Perhaps in h:s 1 cart he knows that America cannot hold aloof from Europe, that she must join the League of Nations, but does not think it advisable to admit this just jet. Mr. Harding's declaration against "permanent military alliances'' has in one important respect an ominous significance. France made it a condition of accepting certain terms in the settlement with Germany that Britain and the United States should promise to come to her assistance if Germany again attacked her. Britain and the United States agreed, and signed agreements which are printed as annexes to the Peace Treaty in the official edition of that document. The agreement between France and the United States sets out that "whereas the United Sta,tes of America and the French Republic fear that the stipulations relating to the left bank of the Rhine contained in the said Treaty of Versailles may not at j first provide adequate security and pro- I tection to France on the one hand and I the United States of America as one ' of the signatories of the Treaty of Versailles on the other," "the United States : shall be bound to come immediately to i her (France's) assistance in the event of any unprovoked movement of aggres- i sion against her being made Germany." This agreement has never been ratified by the United States, and the new President apparently does not even mention it. Worse still, it was recently j stated officially that fulfilment of j Britain's promise to come to France's ■ assistance in the same emergency was contingent upon American ratification. If America does not stand by this bargain of Mr. Wilson's, France will find herself without any guarantee of support in case a regenerated Germany seeks revenge, although it was distinctly on the understanding that such support would be guaranteed that j France abated her demands for other guarantees and consented to the , present peace terms. Under the circumstances may not France be tempted to frame her own measures of protection, even if these go beyond the terms of the actual Treaty? It is no wonder that, as reported this morning, France is sending a special mission to America to put her case before the American Government and people. I