THE MONROE DOCTRINE SYSTEM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14144, 20 August 1909, Page 4

THE MONROE DOCTRINE SYSTEM.

Now that Imperial Defence is being earnestly considered in the United Kingdom and in the colonies, with a graver attitude towards colonial needs than has hitherto been displayed by the Imperial authorities, it may be opportune to discuss whether a " Monroe Doctrine" may not be applied to the Pacific by joint agreement between Britain and the ' United States. There is an AngloJapanese Treaty mutually guaranteeing Eastern possessions. Why not an Anglo-American Treaty mutually guaranteeing the territorial integrity of all the European States of the Pacific 1 To Australia, New Zealand, and Canada it would be much more natural to fight to prevent any injury to ornians than to prevent the Japanese from being ousted from Manchuria. Though America has not yet entered into any definite alliances, there is evidently a growing suspicion that the future contains prospect of trouble, and that the Monroe Doctrine may be challenged, i The British Empire does not desire to take an inch of territory belonging to the United States or within the " sphere" of the United States and we may fairly assume that the United States has the same feeling towards the British Empire. This may lead at some distant date to a more definite and extensive understanding, but in the meantime it may not be impossible to establish a "Monroe Doctrine" in the Pacific, and thus to make European settlement secure, and to prevent any possibility of collision be -jam our kindred peoples^.