OUT OF STEP.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 148, 23 June 1923, Page 6

OUT OF STEP.

The suggestions that President Harding now makes in respect to the constitution and maintenance of the •Permanent Court of International Justice at The Hague indicate that opposi- j tiou to his policy of adherence is proving stronger than lie anticipated. When lie broached the question of adhesion to the Senate in February he presented a note by the Secretary of State ! in which four reservations were suggested. These provided that participation should not be taken to involve any legal relation on the part of the United ! States to the League of Nations or the '■ assumption of any obligations under the • Covenant; that the United States should be permitted to take part on an equality with other nations in the election of judges; that the United States 6hould pay a fair share of expenses, as determined by Congress; and that the statute on which the Court is founded should not be amended without the consent of America. The President now goes a good deal further. He proposes that vacancies in the Court should be filled : by the tribunal itself or by member I nations, instead of by the League; that i the apportionment of contributions I' should be exercised by The Hague Court i of Arbitration or by a commission appointed by the World Court; and that the exclusive right of the League "to ' seek legal advisory guidance from the Court" should be abolished, or that this right should be extended to all member nations. In short, Mr. Harding wants to separate the Court from the League. America, he says, has finally decided against participation in the League, so he wishes to make it quite clear to the American people that adhesion to the Court involves no entanglement. The nations of the League are anxious that the United States should join the Court, and they are perfectly willing to negotiate to that end, but Mr. Harding'a terms will strike them as rather cool. The League of Nations is in being, and the Court is part of its machinery for , preventing war. Why, just because j America will not join the League, should ' the League surrender control of the j Court? Why should the many nations! in the League accommodnte their step to America's? It is America that is out of,': step. J;