AMERICAN VIEWS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21385, 21 April 1944, Page 4

AMERICAN VIEWS

• STATUS OF EMPIRE FUTURE WORLD ORDER MULTIPLE VOTES OPPOSED (Special Correspondent. 1 (9 1 a.ni.) LONDON. .April 20. The opihiohs of the,- United . States on the British Empire are commented oh by the Daily Telegraph's. corrfe'spdtiderit in Washington. He says that the' Americans’, view- is that the nation's forming the Empire constitute ari international priit.ahd that, it is unfair that this unit ,should have six votes to the United States one in any, world organisation. , The United States have no objection to the Statute of Westminster definition of the British Dominions and the United'Kingdom as equal partn'ers within - the Empire, but it would, be a mistake to imagine the United States, is ready to acknowledge that all Empire nations could cast ...an eqtfal vote in an* international organisation. “If this American attitude is persisted., in—and there is every reason to believe it will . b.e—the Empire nations will be. compelled by this outside pressure to make some arrangement for meeting American, objections; or, risk the absence, of. the United States; from, a wprld organisation. The; question therefore arises how. thq American objection to six. Empire votes, can be reconciled ~with' the internal structure ■ of the Empire.” eomimon Empire Policy The idiffleuity is that the suggestions that there* should be a' common- Empire policy Seem to be, on the surface, asking for a return to the old Imperial practice of letting London speai: for the whole Empire. The correspondent refers to the American criticism of the recent Canberra agreement. “The idea of. two Small countries making confident assertions which might run counter to the wishes of the United States was not welcome,” he saiys. “The assertion that the two Anzac Governments should have ‘representation at th 6 highest level on .all .armistice planning and executive planning’ and that they regarded it ‘fundamental that they should be associated in the preliminary planning and establishment of the proposed international organisation contemplated by the Moscow declaration of 1943’ was looked upon as particularly presumptuous.” The correspondent adds: “The Anzac view would have a greater chance of consideration were it to be clis'cussed beforehand with the other members of me Empire and then be .presented- as an ErnpirC project: The various views, held in London, Ottawa and Canberra and other parts of the Empire may not, coincide, but tncy have all rested updri one assumption which may prove quite unfounded. Decision May Be Forced “The assumption is that a decision on the matter rests entirely with the British Empire . nati.ons , that it is an ..internal rather, than an intra-imperial problem with which the world has no concern. Yet, in actual fact, the decision -may be.forced far more by outside views and pressures than by any purely internal considerations. There would be little point in the various Empire nations getting together to discuss their relations with the outside world unless there was some guarantee that the outside world would accept the conclusions to which they came. Their relations with-each other is one thing. Their .relations as a group or. as individuals to the, outside world is quite .another.,, They cannot be discussed in a vacuum, but,only in connection with facets as, they are and Views as they, are, particularly the views of the United States.. Close cqoperation between tHe United States and the British Empire after the war may well .depend on the extern to which the British Empire nations meet the,, American views and disarhi American .prejudices"