AMERICA’S NAVAL POSITION.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVIII, Issue 238, 5 September 1928, Page 6

AMERICA’S NAVAL POSITION.

The American naval authorities have, since the war, dominated the position with their demands for a bigger navy of greater fighting power than that of Britain and the Dominions. America is unquestionably a great country, but it is peopled not so much by a nation as by a conglomeration of nations, with a very strong proportion of peoples who have no love for the British and who, like “Bill” Thompson, the Mayor of Chicago, would, if they could, stamp out all pro-British sentiment. Not more than a third of the population of the Republic come of British stock, and more particularly in the Middle "West and North West States the foreign element (as we would regard it) of the population predominates and a large percentage of that population speak little or no English. llow far that population has to be considered by the Washington authorities in the policy the Government adopts in dealing with Britain and other European countries we are not in a position to say. The moneyed interests are all powerful, and anything that affects what is termed “the Almighty dollar” counts in that policy. That was very apparent in the rejection of the British proposals for the cancellation of the war debts which would have materially assisted in the reconstruction of Europe, and although, as the facts showed, it would have proved a more costly business to Britain (assuming that she was able to collect the debts due to her by her Allies) than to America, tiie Secretary of the United States Treasury (Dir Mellon) not only misrepresented the position, attributing sordid motives to Britain by stating that she was receiving more in reparations from Germany and repayments from her Allies (the direct contrary being the case) than she is paying America, but declined to treat the matter as one of other that “domestic concern,” when he was confronted with the true position. President Goolidge cannot disclaim responsibility for the Ivcllogg Treaty. So far as the United States is concerned it does not operate until it receives the approval of the Senate, and, in withholding it until the Naval Ships Construction Bill has been dealt with, lie is adopting an attitude that may easily engender the suspicion of insincerity in the professed desire of America to renounce war as an instrument of national policy. While he is “expected to explain that he is wholeheartedly in sympathy with the treaty and sincerely anxious for its ratification,” he would have given greater and more convincing proof of his sincerity if he had insisted on its immediate ratification by the Senate, even if lie had to call that body together for a special session, instead of deferring action for another four months.