Britain Urged To Redress U.S. Policy “Lack Of Balance”

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22825, 21 December 1948, Page 7

Britain Urged To Redress U.S. Policy “Lack Of Balance”

LONDON, Dec. 19. The Sunday Times called .on Britain to redress “the lack of balance” of the American policy of “promoting an ex-enemy’s revival” whioh, the newspaper says, has aroused fear and resentment in Australia and France. The policy caused by the “Soviet threat” and directed at establishing Japan and Germany as defence bulwarks, is breeding suspicion among the democracies. The United States’ active internationalism in pursuit of her own security and that of like-minded nations is of the utmost value but, lacking experience, the United States is apt to move in haste, to see the picture in sharply contrasting colours and assume too rashly that because a former ally has become hostile former enemies will remain friendly. “It should be Britain’s part to redress any such lack of balance,” says the paDer. “Our known friends must come first. Germany is important to the West but France is more important still. “Likewise in the Pacific, solid agreement among the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Britain on a regional defence pact should precede any start with the para military revival of Japan.” The Sunday Times says that the. Dominions, as defence-minded as they never were before 1939, are indispensable to the West’s security, but if they are active partners in armed defence they are certainly not prepared to be sleeping partners in a policy on which defence hinges. ‘‘Here is a very urgent occasion for consultation among the Dominions countries at the highest level to ensure that we move together in full mutual confidence because divisions and suspicions among us would be a serious tactical setback in the cold-hot wax that has advanced to a new phase in the Far East.”