LOOSE METHODS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVIII, Issue 18406, 12 May 1920, Page 6

LOOSE METHODS.

The need of a powerful controlling will at Washington becomes more evident daily. The Senate has got itself into a hopeless tangle with the Peace Treaty largely because President Wilson, even then a. sick man, handled his political opponents tactlessly before his departure for Paris. For the same reason American signatures to the League of Nations pact are lacking, although, competent foreign observers assuro us that, with certain reservations, which Lord Grey approves, American opinion is almost unanimously in favour of the

League. Lack of Cabinet control is evidenced in the unwise handling of the committee which is inquiring into the operations of %\ic United States Navy during the war. "We venture to think that the Secretaries of the Navy in the Administrations of Presidents Roosevelt and Taft would not have been permitted to make themselves so offensive as Mr Josephus Daniels has done, even |if they had So desired. International relations are seriously imperilled by Mr Daniels's praise of Admiral Benson's statement to Admiral Sims in an interview with the latter previous to his departure, in 1917, to take up tho duties of liaison officer with tho British Admiralty- We aro certain, however, that in saying that the United States would as soon fight Britain n.s Germany neither Admiral Benson nor the Secretary for tli6 Navy npoke for the American people. They at least were swayed by moral considerations', and not blinded by petty prejudice, when they entered the war, and we shall bo surprised if they do not insist on the dismissal of tho Secretary ' and the Chief of the Naval stilff - ** is undeniable that tho United States Navy rendered Very considerable services to tho Allied cause, but until Mr Daniels .said so we were not aware that its achievements caused the world to marvel. The Americans themselves will be the first to see the humour in this statement. The fact is that Admiral Sims exposed the rottenness of his Department, just as other officials showed up tha gross corruption' and inefficiency of the Departments responsible for tho failure to deliver in France llje aeroplanes and guns for which Congress had voted hundreds of millions of dollars. Attack being the best form of defence, Mr Daniels, like other incompetents, by ascribing covotousness for British decorations and by proclaiming Admiral Situs's Canadian birth, sought to dish, a witness whom they really feared. The Presidential elections are at hand, so tho quatrennial amusement of twisting tho British lion's tail is being indulged in. Perhaps Mr Daniels is only taking a hand in that ancient but not very edifying American sport.