WILSON WAS RIGHT

Evening Star, Issue 18318, 4 July 1923, Page 4

WILSON WAS RIGHT

HIS DIPLOMATIC VICTORY.

ITO HONOR IN HIS OWN LAND

AMERICAN VIEW OE LEAGUE.

[By Lord Robert Cecil.— Copyright.] No. 11. It is true that President Wilson did not achieve all that ho Trent to laris to obtain. Buit his position there was one of prodigious difficulty. He went not to dlefend 1 specific American interests, hut to try to induce Europe to make peace on terms which American opinion approved). Most people in this country now agree that his ideas of a pci'-man-ent peace were right, and perhaps it he had received the support which he had every reason to expect from the British negotiators we might have all been spared! a great deal of the difficulty and unrest which have afflicted Europe since the Paris Conference.

Left fn tli© lurch by the British and faced with the inevitable hostility of the French, he had to abandon a great many of ■the objects which he sought. But ho did achieve, as nobody else could have achieved, the adoption of the League of Nations in a form which experience has so far shown to he sound and workable. That was a diplomatic victory of no mean kind, and) it is probable that when the names of all others who took part in these ©Ogotlfttions are known only to historical students 'President Wilson will be remembered as the man who, amidst almost overwhelming difficulties, carried through a project of the highest moment to mankind. That, however, is not the view commonly hold by a largo section of Americans. They believe that President Wilson was completely “ bamboozled,” following that celebrated, although unjust, phrase about him, and that opinion operates as a strong confirmation of the traditional reluctance of America to be again entangled in European affairs. Possibly if the league had been free from party controversy, this attitude would have been less pronounced, for, as a matter of fact, there is no question of entanglement in the ordinary sense by entering into the League. Decisions of the Assembly, even- when unanimous—as, strictly speaking, they must he—have no binding force on the Governments they represented. They only amount to very authoritative recommendations of a particular line of policy, which the Governments are left .fr.ee to adopt or reject. The only apparent exception is the obligation created by Article XVI., which requires -all members of the League to break off relations, political and economic, with any other member who has resorted l to war in defiance of the obligations of Article XV. But even there it is left to each State to determine for itself whether a casus foederis has arisen, and there can bo no “ entanglement ” except by a decision of each State. GREAT BRITAIN’S SIX VOTES. Closely allied with this line of attack on the Covenant was the objection that Great Britain had six votes in the Assembly. Evidently, if you conceive the Assembly to be a collection of fifty-two nations bent on deceiving and defrauding the United 1 States, the fact that one of them has six votes may be -made to appear a great aggravation of the position. But this argument need net be now considered at length, owing to the great improvement in the relations between the two countries. Twisting the lion’s tail has ceased to be an effective political manoeuvre.

Nowadays most even of those Americana who hold the doctrine of European wickedness and American in,noconcy most strongly would regard the presence in an international assembly of a strong British element as rather a protection than an increase of their danger.

Though these arguments were used vigorously in 1920, their chief importance at vthe present day is that, having become part of the political armory of one of the political parties, it is difficult to get them reconsidered impartially. If that could! be done, they would soon disappear. There is, however, another objection to the League which has grown greatly in force with the passing months. Many Americans, otherwise not indisposed to accept some form of international co-opera-tion for the purpose of ponce, are .repelled by their strong and growing belief that the European nations arc not genuine in their desire for a peaceful policy. They read constant telegrams from all parts of Europe referring to unrest, many of them being exaggerated. I was seriously asked at an interview whether it was not 'true that there were sixty wars going on in Europe ait the present time, and whether most of them had'-not been begun since the League of Nations came into operation.

The action of Poland with regard to Vilna was constantly thrown in my teeth. Still more frequently I was asked) why the League did not interfere to stop the Greco Turkish War, and my explanation that the opportunity for interference really occurred in 1921, when the League was too young to undertake so big a job, did nob carry much conviction. They would, however, I think, be prepared to condone tho failure to stop hostilities in Asia Minor, on the ground that Turkey was not a. member of the League, and that the combatants were not very amenable to world) opinion.