NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 298, 10 September 1921, Page 6

NOTES OF THE DAY

From a fog of words Mr. Lloyd George’s latest letter to Mr. de Valera once again reduces the Irish negotiations to a clear-cut issue. Is Sinn Fein prepared to enter into a conference to ascertain how the association of Ireland with the Empire can best be reconciled with Irish national aspirations? That is the question, as it has been all along, but it seems almost impossible to got a plain .and straightforward answer to it. Unless those who speak for Southern Ireland will ansxver in the affirmative it is no use going on with the letters and conferences. So far the Sinn Hein attitude has been that nothing put forward is acceptable, but that it is desirable to continue negotiating. This sort of thing turns the whole proceeding into a debating society with each side talking around and about the point and dissecting and demolishing each other's arguments and illustrations and getting nowhere in the finish. Mr. de Valera and his friends are apparently prepared io go on talking until doomsday, but it is high time the whole business was brought to a head definitely one way or the other. Sinn Fein ought to know by this time whether it is prepared to advise the Irish people to remain in the Empire ox- not.

The other young lady students of the Teachers’ Training College who attended at the Police Court when one of theixnumber was charged with the sale of seditious literature did not, it seems, subscribe the amount of <ho fine. The official statement to this effect was, therefore, incorrect. This satisfactory piece of intelligence will be found this morning in tho report of the committee set up to inquire into Xhe matter. An effort has been made in certain quarters to represent tho steps taken against the young xvoman herself and the inquiry at the college as a persecution of opinion. It is necessary to ' bear in mind that tho publication which was sold advised its readers that they should be prepared to propagate; Communism by cither legal or illegal methods. This is the gospel of Lenin, the whole foundation of whose teaching is that progress ~must be sought by tho path of violence and revolution. Those who desire freedom to advocate such views, which come so near to anarchy as to be almost indistinguishable—and in their practical application in Russia have not been distinguishable—must look fox- it in some other country than New Zealand. It was inevitable that tho conviction of a ydung woman who was a student at the Training College should causo uneasiness in the public mind, in viexv of tho apparent support of her by other students. That uneasiness '.ho committee’s report should allay, and we hope the incident may now be definitely regarded as closed.

Success ox- failure at tho Disarmament Conference will depend in the main on the attitude of the United States and Japan towards each other. A change in Japanese opinion has been reported in the cable messages, and it may bo that in sensing the .general state of world politics the statesmen of that country are coming to the conclusion that they have'more to gain by a pacific than a bellicose policy. A message this morning gjves details of the conditions on which Japan is prepared to K restore the occupied territory in Shantung to China. Unfortunately, tho crucial point—tho xlate on which the withdrawals are to 'take place—is again omitted. This may bo an omission by tbe cable correspondent, or it may bo a Japanese omission. It was Japan’s previous failure to supply a date fox- her departure from their territory that was so profoundly unsatisfactory to the Chinese as to cause them to refuse to eign the Peace Treaty. If Japan is really now about to' depart from Shantung it means one Vexed question the less for review at Washington. It is most earnestly to be hoped that Ilia path may be smoothed to some general relief from the crushing burden of armaments. Those nations which lost the war have been disarmed, and are relieved of this handicap. It is true they have other burdens at present, but practically their whole man-power is freo for productive employment. General Smuts predicts that with the vanquished escaping the load of armaments, tho victors W'll only commit suicide by arming to teeth. On the other hand, they would more certainly be committing suicide by standing defenceless. Security wo must have for our civilisation, but with more good will and a bettor understanding in international affairs somesubstantial reduction in tho forces on which we depend for that security should be possible.

Anglo-American relations bulk largo these days, and it is worth the while of British people to make an effort to understand tho American point of view. To begin with, it has to be remembered that a large proportion of tho people of tho United States have ingrained in them a traditional anti-British feeling. Unhappy events in the reign of George 111 brought that to a head, and unfortunately it survives, and colours the views of great masses of the people. It is a handicap which France, for instance, •wenpes in her relations with tho United States. In the South the population is predominantly Anglo-Saxon in origin. In most parte of the West it ie largely so.

Elsewhere it is not. As a writer in the London '‘Times’’ recently pointed out, tho United States is a land of vast distances. From New York) to San Francisco is as far as from London to Teheran. Up the centre of this immense territory is a tract 1000 miles wide, which is roughly 1000 miles from tho seaboard in either direction. The American Ambassador in London has said that it is the population of this region which dominates American politics. It is a population far from tho sea and remote from contact with all other countries. A vigorous, ambitious, intensely patriotic population, supremely engrossed in tho fascinating business of developing its own wonderful empire. Ideas of world-politics and the inter-dependence of peoples have made only a small appeal to these people, with so much to occupy them at home. Latterly, however, tho effect of depression in Europe on their own prosperity has stimulated a feeling that the nations of tho world arc, after all, in one boat, and it is the pressure of these economic forces which is chiefly moving America to-day towards a closer co-operation with Europe.