ESTABLISHED 1866. The Marlborough Express. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. THURSDAY, JANUARY 14, 1915. AMERICA AND THE WAR.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIX, Issue 11, 14 January 1915, Page 4

ESTABLISHED 1866. The Marlborough Express. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. THURSDAY, JANUARY 14, 1915. AMERICA AND THE WAR.

Tlie conduct of the Germans in deiliberately setting out, as they .<are so clearly ■doing, to make Belgium a German province should surely ■ make an impression upon the-American people, even should that timorous, time-serv-ing creature, President Wilson, persist in his curious attitude of detach- ; ment. Every day brings tidings of some new and brutal crime committed by the ruthless invaders of a peaceable and neutral country. Upon the most trivial pretexts huge War taxes are being levied upon the inhabitants of the Belgian cities and j towns, the law of nations, the law of common justice and humanity, being outraged with cynical deliberation and even ostentatious publicity. And still the United States Government makes no protest, but on the other hand seeks to tie the hands of the Allies by insisting upon the relinquishment of those rights of seizure of contraband cargoes which are possessed by all belligerents. It Is bad enough to witness the deplorable sight of small and comparatively weak socalled "neutrals" such as Sweden,., r^jrv.ry; Be::m;u4:, and TTollivnd, piny- •

ing into the hands of Britain's foes by winking at the supply by their subjects of war material and food to the enemy. For these Statesj however, there is some small excuse in the fact that they may not unreasonably shrink from openly, quarrelling with so mighty a Power as Germany still is, though it may not long continue to be. But for America there is no such excuse; yet under the misguided lead of their President the Americans are adopting an attitude which will infallibly be remembered long after the war is over. Whether the difficulty as to the seizure or delaying of vessels bound for neutral ports with cargoes suspected to be destined to be finally handed over to German consignees can be amicably settled remains to be seen. At present the position seems a trifle easier; but it would be unwise to infer that all possibility of a very serious international dispute has been finally removed. It is, however, with regard to Germany's treatment of the unhappy Belgians that the American attitude of cynical indifference is most reprehensible. President Wilson knows full well, his Ministers know full well, the whole American nation knows it also, that Germany has wilfully, insolently torn up the Hague Agreement, and that she is daily violating all the ordinary laws of justice and humanity which are crystallised and formally set forth in that Agreement, which was solemnly signed by representatives of the United States. And yet not one word of protest does there come from Washington. America, to put it plainly, tells the world, through her President, • that what happens in Europe does not concern her'; that so long as Uncle Sam can sell his cotton and wheat'— and the Guggenheim Trust's copper for German guns and bullets— can in fact carry' on "business as usual," ten's of thousands of innocent people's lives may be sacrificed, historic monuments destroyed, municipalities _and banks plundered, and the American' representatives at Berlin and Vienna shall have no instructions from their Government to-utter one word of protest. Our Wellington contemporary, the New Zealand Times, draws from this attitude of President Wilson a very striking moral. It remarks:—-.

But the .original caupe for surprise remains by the deliberate noninterference of America in this very great crime of the Germanic Empire. Britain has protected America^ many times agiainst unprincipled coalition • since the day wben Canning supplied America with a sovereign specific against European tyrannic; ■•' might in the germ of the Monroe Doctrine. But even, these services did not avail to draw from America, a protest in the .matter of Belgium, far' less any overt act of assistance. From this there is but one moral to be drawn. It is.that there js no such thing as a comity of nations in any worthy sense of the word. From which it follows that po nation is safe without strong alliances, aoid no alliances can be availabte.'for successful defence unless, prepared to fight for all they have. The strong man armed w!k> trusts; in his weapons and his strength is the model at present for every nation.

The day may come, nay. is almost oortain to come, when 'the United States may have to appeal to Great Britain for assistance. But in that day who could blame' Great Britain were she to play the same contemptible game of non-interference that is being pjaygd ?by America- at the present time? 'Tn some stirring verses by an English .writer, Harold Begbie, occur the. following1 stinging lines addressed to the United States, "The Neutral" :—

We ask not that-of all your hoste One man, one sword, be sacrificed ! Your kinsmen guard these ancient coasts, Your kinsmen charge the antiChrist; - But we expect vourmip-hty voioe With judgment thro' the world to run.— O Land of Freedom, make yous choice:

Are you for Belgium or the 'Hun ? How long, we wonder, will the American nation- ' support, President Wilson's pro-Hun policy of timorous, cowardly silence in face of the Hunnish atrocities in ■ Belgium ? If this anti-British attitude—for that 'is wJiat it actually amounts to—of America is to continue, then Uncle Sam, who can apparently feel only in the region of his pocket, will Jia-v© to be taught a very effective lessori; taught in fact that cowardly toleration of international wrong-doing does not pay. A world-wide boycott of Uncle Sam's manufactured proods by the peonle ot the British Empire would be a. mightily unpleasant "praposition," as the^ Americans say, to be "up against." More unlikely things have happened in the past. Those who are not for Us are against us, and wihy should we spend a penny with a country whose rulers turn a blind eye tc the dictates of honor,' justice, and common humanity?!