BRITISH NATIONS JOINING U.S.

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25305, 3 October 1947, Page 7

BRITISH NATIONS JOINING U.S.

CHICAGO “TRIBUNE” SEES NO PROBLEM

RETIRED JOURNALIST’S VJEW SUPPORTED (Rec. 9 p.m.) CHICAGO, October 1. The Chicago “Tribune,” in a leading article headed “Japan as Model for British Status/’ says: “England and Canada have recently been flirting with the idea of political reunion with the United States. “Mr John Stevenson, a retired Canadian correspondent for the Lon-

don ‘Times,’ advanced the proposal in articles written for the Toronto ‘Globe and Mail* four years ago. “We (the *Tribune’) initiated the project of giving the British Empire a new lease of life by converting it from an Empire into American States,” adds the “Tribune.” “We said that naturally this meant dispensing with the King and the nobility. - “If the British think the transition would be difficult they need only remind themselves that that great statesman, General MacArthur, has solved the question of the Crown and the nobility in the new Constitution which he approved for Japan on March 7, 1946. If Hirohito, whose title in a direct line is said to go back some 2600 years, can renounce Royal authority and even his claim to divinity,, it should be much simpler for George VI and the British peers to engage in an act of renunciation.” The "Tribune” recalls Its suggestion that Scotland, Wales, and Ireland should join ‘the United States as states, that Canada should be another, and that Australia, New Zealand and their contiguous islands might form yet another.

They can establish their eligibility by adopting constitutions of a republican character modelled upon that of Japan,” says the “Tribune.” “All of them are sadly in heed of the protection of written constitutions anyway, and deserve no less than the Japanese to become acquainted with freedom of thought, conscience, press, religion, and speech. “Once the petitioning new republics complete their constitutions and apply for. admission to the American Union, a Congressional joint resolution is all that is required to accept them as new states. If the question I .L_?s Ver Presented in this form the Tribune’ will be disposed to view favourably the accomplishment of this labour of amelioration and reconciliation.”