The Press Tuesday, December 4, 1923. A Century of Monroe.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 17937, 4 December 1923, Page 6

The Press Tuesday, December 4, 1923. A Century of Monroe.

It is not x jo33^'J^e gi y e a definition of the Monroe Doetrino that sounds as well to Europeans as to Americans. The justification of the Monroe Doctrine is that it has for a hundred years kept Europe out of America, or prevented it from getting any further into America than it was when the new policy was declared; which lias been, of course, an excellent thing for the world, but a not quite excellent certificate of character to the European nations. And if, in addition to keeping Europe oat of America, the Monroe Doctrine is now also keeping America out of Europe, the American can say of that also that Europeans desire his entry now only because they have proved themselves to be the kind of people as close neighbours he lias always feared they were, lie has kept to himself and prospered; they have interfered with one another, quarrelled, fought, and come to ruin. But however unpleasant it may be to Europeans to reflect that the Monroe' Doctrine lias justified itself and condemned them, and, however disappointed BritonS especially must be that the effect of this justification is a belief'now on the part of America in dangers that she could safely ignore, no one can find fault with America if she chooses still to regard Europeans as a hopeless lot. What she fears from participation in Old World affairs can only be worry, expense, economic and spiritual distraction: she is too big and powerful to bo afraid of anything that may happen in a military sense, and she cannot fear the loss of her economic prosperity, since the worst that could happen to her would be a passing economic disturbance. What slio means then by spying that she tl would rather suffer such ills as " might reault from her present policy " towards Europe than suffer the " greater evils which follow the sacri- " fice of her independent position" is that living by herself she can bo herself, remain free of all entangling commitments and distractions, and while avoiding the economic embarrassments of spendthrift acquaintanceships, develop along the lines her goographical position points out to her as her own. It is a selfish policy only in so far as the aim of it is America's good only, and a safe.one only if wo may assume that without the kind of assistance which America is asked to give, Europe, and the world at large, will still recover from the present confusion.' Mr Hughes said at Philadelphia on Saturday precisely what he said at Newhaven twelve months , ago. Whatever we may regret or dislike in his speech it is a careful, in the essential phrases an exceedingly careful, statement of the fact of America's continuing isolation, and the reasons for it. And even if it were loss friendly than it so plainly is, we should be entitled to reniember that Europe lias nothing to fear from American unfriendliness but the absence of a holping hand over a stile. The Monroe Doctrine has j proved no barrier to the nationals of any European country whose exploitation of the New World has boen nonpolitical. And if, in the terms of this j discussion, we includo Britons among Europeans, the Monroo Doctrine is so little a cause of friction that tho American Ambassador in London could thus s\im up the relations between tho two Powers after ninety-nine years of Monroe: "The relations of Great " Britain and the United States, of " both Governments and peoples, ought "to be cordial, and they are. They " should continue to be cordial, and " they shall."

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