SAFEGUARDING PEACE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 17984, 9 January 1922, Page 4

SAFEGUARDING PEACE.

j The forecast of a general agreement among the five great Powers, which was made when the terms of the Pacific treaty were announced, is revived to-day with a definite I indication of the form which the | fundamental clause of such a treaty is expected to take. The proposal [is that the United States, Prance, j Britain, Japan and Italy shall underI take that in the event of any of them i being threatened with war the other : four shall confer and see what ' measures can be taken to avert war. The significance of this simple sentence is manifest. It is almost an inevitable consequence of the Powers' agreement to the limitation of naval armaments, x but it goes further since it comprises the whole fie'd of its members' international relations .and directly meets the possibility of war between them and other nations. The cable message illustrates its operation by the simple "■ase of Italy and Greece, but it is j ar»2&;-«t that it would apply also in jt'ae event of Germany threatening | ws? &sbccw Jhus it is not

unreasonable to regard it as a substitute, probably acceptable to the United States, for the League of Nations Covenant and the treaty between Britain, America and France for the defence of Prance against unprovoked aggression, both of which the United States refused to ratify. Though the proposed treaty and the League Covenant have a common purpose, to maintain and enforce peace, the limitations of the former reflect American influence. Articles 10 and 11 of the Covenant impose upon the League the responsibility of action whenever peace is threatened, and cast upon the members of the League obligations which the United States has refused to undertake blindly. The treaty nimply brings the five great Powers into an association, involving no other obligation than mutual consultation in the event of war threatening any of them. Within its limited scope the draft provision is similar in effect to article 11 of the League Covenant, but the matter is not one of phrases. The United States has not adhered to the League Covenant; it will apparently join this pact. The attitude of the American Congress cannot be presumed, but its objection has not been to America's association with other nations in measures for the preservation of peace, but to the suggestion that its right to determine America's attitude should be modified by indefinite obligations. It would be straining the language of the draft treaty to discover in it anything, that would commit its parties to engage in war. Frse from this fundamental objection, the treaty may therefore receive from Congress the support already given by the American delegation, and if this is realised there will be brought into .existence a, moral force for the preservation of peace such ah no nation would lightly defy, since any aggressive action would be immediately reviewed by the great Powers, and in such circumstances as occurred in 1914 their consultation might quickly reveal a physical force of formidable strength.