Manawatu Evening Standard. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1921. ANGLO-AMERICAN RELATIONSHIPS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIII, Issue 3108, 29 December 1921, Page 4

Manawatu Evening Standard. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1921. ANGLO-AMERICAN RELATIONSHIPS.

Ir (he Washington (,'onfei'enec docs nothing else il .should go Inr towards removing the leeling,s of mutual distrust with which the peoples ol (treat Britain and America have regarded each other tor many decades past. On the American side those leelings have been fomented and spread by Irish-Americans and (lernmn-Amerieans for more than halt a century, and hitter misunderstandings have arisen as a rc.suit of Llie propaganda so persistently waged against Britain and the British by those wim constituted themselves ’ their enemies, and who fanned the resenthd leehngs ol native-born Anmrieaiis towards Kngland as a power which would have enslaved them. There are more Irish in the I nited Stales than in Ireland ilseli, and the Oerman section oi the great Republic is more numerous than tim Irish. The propagandists ol both races are animated by the same tooling ol hatred against Britain, and both exercise a marked influence on American polities, and, as American historians have not been too careful in recording the events ol the past, the anti-British leeling had come to be verv marked prior to the war. and was much in evidence during (he momentous happenings that followed upon the hostilities in Knrope Indore I he Baited States decided to take a hand in the business. Kven during America’s participation in l lie con Diet advantage was taken of the position to promote the idea that America could never he o really I rot* country ,while the British Navy was supreme on the High Seas, and that it was absolutely necessary the United States Navy should surpass Kngland’, s. .More than one admission to that effect is on record, together with the marked jealousy which characterised the attitude o| the American Navy Department’s officials towards Britain. It was: probably that leeling-that led to IVesident Wilson’s demand, in his "fourteen Points,’’ for the ‘‘freedom ol the seas.” and that was at the hack of Mr Secretary Daniel’s extraordinary statemint that “il was the American Navy which made possible the transportation ol over 2, 000, ()()() Americans to France without the loss of a single transport on the way over.” whereas (as Owen Mister, a distinguished American writer, puts it), ‘‘the greater part ol ihose troops were not only transported, hut convoyed, by British vessels, largely withdrawn from such vital service as the supply of food to Britain’s civilian population.” Jealousy of Oreat Britain as a potential rival of American trade and industry was very marked during the Victorian era, when the population and trade ol the United Kingdom were both greater than those of the United States. But, whereas the time of the first great International Kxhihitiou held in London in ISol, the population ol the I'ormei; was 27,72 IJI.IG and i ha I ol the United Stales was only 2d.1D1.87G: now, the United Slates has a population of 10o.GSd.108. against some 17. 01)0.000 in the United Kingdom. Kngland was. again, far wealthier in 18.11 than America, the industries of the latter country being then in their in fancy while Kngland was “(he workshop <0 the world,” and dominated the world with her industries and commerce, producing two-thirds of the world's coal and two-thirds of (he world’s iron and stool. She was further, al that time, • >•••)<1 1’ ( •!n./ | wo-llii l ' Is ol i he world s manufactured cotton goods, and owned two-thirds of the world’s shipping. In

Ll l< words of an American writer, “England financed all the powers, and English engineers built with English money railways and factories without number all over the live continents.” AM ERICA’S SUPERIOR RESOURCES The position to-day is materially changed. The coal measures ol the United States are twenty times greater than those of (treat Britain, and ''America’s superiority over England in water-power, in oil. in minerals of all kinds, and in raw products required in industry, is absolutely overwhelming.” "reduction in the United States and industrial eliicieney arc relatively gieater per worker than in the United Kingdom. A semi-oflicial statement on flic subject -says; “Analytical comparison lends to show that production per worker is three times as great in t lie ('niter! States as in the United Kingdom. Emm the industrial point ol view England has not 45,000.000 inhabitants. but on'.v 15,000,000 inhabitants.” And lhi,- disparity can only ‘‘bo overcome by the Americanising of the British industries, which is inevitable, unless England is willing to sink to the rank of a third-rale power.” There is. therefore, no valid n ason why America, with its illimitable resources and infinitely numerical superiority in population. should bo any longer jealous oi England. Such jealousy as remains seems to lie directed more against the British Empire and the Commonwealth of British nations comprising that Empire The Washington Conference, but for the prescience of British statesmen, would have left the Dominions forming part of that Empire unrepresented, except vicariously. h was no part of President Harding's scheme to admit that the British Overseas Dominions, which had been recognised as signatories to the Versailles Peace Treaty, and as distinct entities in the League of Nations, were entitled to a say t, questions in which they were eve ; more vitally concerned than t.n country which gave them birth. i Conference has, however, establislmrl. beyond dispute, the disinterestednc--.- • the British policy in regard to d • armament, and the right ol the Ire; nations comprising the. British Empii'i to a consultative voice in the settle incut of such great questions as liras 1 the Conference lias taken in hand. I ■ has further paved the way tor a clearer and more definite understanding between the English-speaking countries ol the world, and the terms of settlement offered to Ireland by Mi Lloyd Ceorge appear to have impressed American opinion, which lias been largely antagonistic to Britain on account ol tjie trouble in Ireland am. Die garbled accounts oi the* doings o‘ the British in that unhappy land. It is therefore satisfactory to find that the advocates of an Anglo-American alliance are on the increase, and that American writers arc iinding out mun and more ol the good points ol ! >rit, .-.1 1 statesmen and British diplomacy

“ Is;itisli civilisation and American civilisation are (in llie voids ol an American write;') so closely akin as to he practically identical.” The same writer says that “ the host e,uatante* 1 lor the preservation ot pea.ee through out the world is to he ionnd in tin cordial co-operation ol these two States, which would he irresistible it thes veit united hy the one common purpose.' Such co-operation, had R taken tin form of an alliance or union in Idi-I. would, in all probability. have deterred (formally ironi declaring war on I*janu and Russia. It might even have prevented Austria serving the nitimatun upon Serbia which proved to ho the match that ignited the comhustihh elements that were pre-dispnsod towards war in Id mope. The British ranpii’e eoninrises something under a thin! of the population of the world, and. with the ITiited Slates, accounts io 5(51,205.032 persons mil pd the world population. Moth the i'.mpire aim hi States have room tor hundreds ol nui--1 ions of people. They are the most sparsely peopled ot the States or J\nc pi res ot the world, the British Kmpna and the I idled Slates and its posses sious only carrying 3(5.8 and ’13.7 per sons respectively to the square nule. while in 1!UI danan had 335.8, Oermatiy 331.0, italy 313.5, China proper •j(i().(), Austria 213.7, trance Hungary 1(5(5.G. and Russia in hump, oo o persons to the square nule While, therefore, the British Kmpm ami the Republic of the tinted States contain more than a third ol tin world's population, they carry a mud smaller proportion of people per square mile of their respective territories thm any of the other countries ol tin world, and common sense seems to dictate a ooliey of mutual co-operatmi. and assistance in the defence ol thos; territories.