AMERICA AND PEACE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19136, 30 September 1925, Page 13

AMERICA AND PEACE.

ATTITUDE; DF.FINKD. '■:■< : :X ii :•. r SICK OF LEAGtJE OF NATIONS. " ' ' WILL KEEP OUT OF EUROPE* - n* E DCNCAN HAI L. Leader of the Australian Group at tjie. Institute' of Pacific Relations. No. I. V' . ■';"'■■" -

Those who see, or imagine they see, in America's refusal to enter the League of Nations the chief obstacle in the way of a new world order,, may, bo inclined to think of Americans as the three figures Christian met in his Pilgrims Progress, "Simple said: ' I see no danger.' Sloth said: ' Yet a little more sleep.' Presumption said: 'Every vat must stand upon its own bottom.' "

But Simple, Sloth and Presumption wore not present among the Americans who came to the Institute-. of Pacific Relations, These were men of vision and wide knowledge and experience in handling world affairs. Among them wero a number who had served America at International Con - ferences. One of them was an expert cn the Dawes Committee; another was the draftsman of the Four Power Pact Treaty of the Washington Conference. Others were leading! publicists and editors, men with their lingers continually upon tho many pulses of what Professor Davenport, a member of Congress, called " mighty, BPething, conglomerate America." Fr.?m all sides, from the representatives of the British Dominions, from China, from Japan came the call to the Americans to explain the attitude of their country to international co-operation, particularly as,' regards the Pacific, and to give America a lead in this matter., Put Down the Receiver. The response to this call was particularly interesting and Instructive. Their statements in public c;nd in private showed general agreement at all important P 0l ®* s upon a definite view with regard to the future of Africa in international relations? In the first place they all emphasised the conglomerate - nature ■ot America and her many headedneM.. According to Professbr Davenport. it ww the sudden overwhelming miration ?of this that dictated tho # American immigration policy. 11 The fast j is, ho said, * that we have obtained a glimpse of the inner nature of ourselves and; wo are afraid of it. We want timo to master ourselves.". The altitude of the Americans toward the League of Nations was the subject of soani. comment by the leading members delegation Almost without exception _ they, had at one time been enthusiastic Xeaguo of Nations men. George Grafton Wilson, Professbr of International Law at Harvard, himself an ardent follower of Wilson and still a believer in tho possibayty of a workable world-wide States with extensive powers., said that are sicU and tinsd o. the very words League of' -Nations. soqn. lasthey hear the words they put down tho > receiver!" He and other reliable: and sympathetic observers - expressed the view that if a plebiscite were taken on the . question of entering ' the League, , tho Americas, people would vote overwhelmingly against the proposal. There was general agreemont among tM Americans in the argument forward by Prol'efcor Jeremiah Jento) "(who * j served the Dawes Committee as an economic expert) that "it would have been utterly impossible for the Dawes Commissioa to have been created, or for the commission to succeed, if v.e had been tied into' the -League : as a full-fledged " policy 4 -Sfiff States, he continued, "is- one of .non-in-terference in European politics and 'of co-clperation with the League in all affairs wheire European polities, are not involved (particularly in matters of general world concern), j( and where our help can really Divided in Ser Own Soul, The most brillialit explanation of what nciw. appears to be the, settled American view with regard to the League of Nations was given by Proiessor Blakeslee, one of the .'ending figures i:i ppiifcs|pnbipj^ Politics, America, .lie said, will join the . Court . ("we will bo in the Court within a year," Professor Grafton Wilson prophesied in conversation with toe). But American public opinion will not permit the United States, to join the League so long «s one of its functions if. to dssJi with the loeal political issueb of Europe." "Regarding Europe, as including North Afditia and the: Near East," ho staid, "every singla Conors to.;. poUtical, iMM fto. Leagus bin been a local European problem," So far as the League deals with "non-poii-tical,problems of a Worldwide charafltys the Government is anxious to : co-operate, : and.- •#: cooperating ra s: ««»> as possible under the; limitations imposed by Act. of 1 l Congress.; 'With regard to the third of .'the League's functions, its work,> to end •war, America, he said, ia heart and soul in «ympathy .with the object. She hn* rejected the League as a method, but ha» no clear-cut, definite proposal, to,substi- « tut© for iti" "On the issue of th» 'methods of achieving international .America is divided in her own soul." In short the position toward which Americans seemed to be feeling their wav was roughly this. Europe must' deal with her own local political issues. So long . as the League has this as one; of its nj'oii» functions, America cannot enter. But if these functions' were devolved byth» League upon some local European Organisation—perhaps a development firora th» Western European pact which might b* tbe starting point of a movemwit Joward a United States of Europe—then the po»* tion might be altered/ It was pointed out by Professor Blakeslee that politico' issues /in the American continent; w« ; i ■ dealt with by Americans and that mm* r Pacific political issues were dealtwith by ]! J the Washington Conference treaties or br • diplomatic negotiation. The possibility which seemed to be opening out in minds of some of tho Americas* was'that* regional groups—-European, Pacific, fiiq might be formed" to deal with political issues which .were more or less tegional in, character, whilst the. League of Nations. relieved of immediate responsibility fof local political issues in Europe, and per-, haps the Pacific, might handler the larger issues of world concern, including the i keeping.of the world's peace.