WORLD COURT

Greymouth Evening Star, 22 June 1923, Page 2

WORLD COURT

PRESIDENT HARDING’S SCHEME. (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) NEW YORK,' June 20. President Harding, en route to Alaska, made a speech at St. Louis, suggesting three changes in the World Court, designed to sever it from the League of Nations and so ease the way for American entry into the Court. The President proposed first, that vacancies on the Court be filled by the tribunal itself or else by member nations, instead of. by the League; second, the apportionment of contributions, supervision of expenses, fixing judges, compensation to be exercised either by The Hague Court or by a Commission designated by "members of the World Court; third, abolition of the League’s exclusive rights to seek legal advisory guidance from the Court or else extension of this right to all member nations. The President declared his willingness to accept a clarifying reservation, that the United States understands that the Court owes no subservience or obligation to the League and proposed other changes as the basis of negotiations. He declared: “I am so eager for its ultimate accomplishment that I am interested in harmonising the opposing elements more anxious to effect our helpful commitment to the Court than I am to secure victory for the executive.” He hoped in time that Germany, Turkey and Mexico would adjust international relations so that they might join the Court. The President dealt lengthily with various senatorial objections, repeatedly asserting that he would do everything possible to satisfy those fearing that entrance to the Court involves the United States in the League’s affairs, adding: “In face of the overwhelming verdict of 1920, the League of Nations issue is as dead as slavery. It is not for us.”