A NEW ERA

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 37, 12 August 1930, Page 7

A NEW ERA

"GREAT WATERSHEDS

ATLANTIC TO PACIFIC

"This afternoon I listened taj speeches of considerable interest in youi; Parliament/ said Professor Livingston, of lowa University, in an address last evening to the Wellington branch, of the English-speaking Union. "The members were speaking on the ap- , preaching Imperial Conference. Ona member, in referring to the situation in. the Pacific, expressed the view that if the power of America and that Of th» British Commonwealth could be brought into co-operation, the peace of the world would be assured. As one Am-erican-—I am sorry to say that I cannot speak with more authority—l believe I can say that there are millions of u» who feel the same way. Indeed, .with our traditional suspicion in America of European nations, we have considerably more confidence in the co-opera-tion of America with the British Commonwealth than we have in the co-oper-ation- of America with the League of Nations. In other words, as we tura away from the League of Nations we seem to feel closer to the members of this great commonwealth."

The speaker said he was not ready; yet to trust the peace of the world to the League, and he was very happy-^----and he knew his hearers were happy— that men like Barusay Mac Donald and. Herbert Hoover could go fishing , together in Virginia and discuss international matters, and thoroughly iron, them out. He had a feeling, however, that there was another member present in that party. He could hot conceive of such a meeting of Kamsay MacDonold and Herbert Hoover without the spirit of Woodrow Wilson being there also. . . •'GREAT WATERSHED CROSSED.'*General Smuts, a man who was closely associated with Woodrow Wilson, said a few months agp.: that during, the Peace Conference ,of 1919-20 mankind had crossed one of the great watersheds in.; history, arid was now marching through country which it had never entered on before. ■ . ■ ; ■■:

The speaker said he was afraid that we did not appreciate enough the complete revolution that seemed to havo been wrought in the present period of world history and world peace. 'He sometimes thought that a hundred years from now the period we were now living in would be regarded as considerably more important than tho period of the French Revolution and the American Revolution. We did not at present fully realise what General Smuts suggested—that we had crpsscd one of the great watersheds, and that we were now traversing country that we had never seen before. He was of Opinion that the leadership in that march had naturally fallen to AngloAmerican fellowship. It was not necessarily Anglo-Saxon. Ho sometimes thought we were prone to forget that neither tho British Commonwealth nor the United States was all Anglo-Saxon. Canada had her French, German, -anti Hungarian population^ and especially a large French clement, as was seen iv. her Parliament, but they were successfully working Anglo-Saxon institutions. Then in South Africa there were the Dutch. America had her millions of splendid people who came there to escape the conditions of life in Europe. But the streams of people who had been, and were now being, poured into those countries were being poured into what had been called British moulds, and those moulds were moulds of freedom. It was not because they were Anglo-Saxon moulds that we necessarily loved them—we were happy that they wore —but it was because they had. a supreme quality that appealed to all men-—moulds of freedom rather than of subjection, moulds of right and justice. Let us look to the preservation of that quality. ■ •■...• A PROPHECY. The speaker then read an extract ' from Green's History, written ?• fiftyyears ago, in which he foretold' tha primacy of the English-speaking peoples and institutions. But before that period of fifty years had passed the face of the world was being changed by thesef English-speaking nations. ■■•;.,.■■■■ Professor Livingston, after referring to past history and to the shift of interest and power from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic, expressed tuo opinion that another shift seemed' imminent, from, the Atlantie';to .thq;Paefic. It was probable that live to-sec the importance of tKe ; tliird change, .but the completion ofu.thei ' Panama Canal had done a great.: deal to bring that about. Not only was that important to America, but it was imw portahtalso to Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. The significance of the third change was that it was a shift among the members of the sam© great family. ■ ' "', " ' . Reference was made, to the competitive nationalism of the past, with iti armies and navies'arid fear,- and- that was compared with the new nationaiisnt which seemed to be ■'■ developing; along lines of co-operation .rather .than, of the old-time competition. v Th%catastrophe of 1914 had probably., brought one era to an end, and there hadgrowa up such a change as was expressed'in. the League of Nations, and such organisations ,as the British Commonwealth. The new era was not one of fear and competition as was the old era, except that there might be competition to determine who best could work.: The speaker concluded by alluding _to the international conferences held; in. Lon-, don and Washington, and stressed; then; importance and significance.