BRITAIN AND AMERICA

New Zealand Times, Volume L, Issue 11659, 25 October 1923, Page 8

BRITAIN AND AMERICA

GROWTH OF FRIENDSHIP CLOUDS CLEARED BY ABROGATION OF JAPANESE TREATY. “A MENACE TO PEACE.” Br Telegraph. —Prose Assn.—Copyright. Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. (Received October 24, 7.40 p.m.) LONDON, October 23. Colonel George Harvey, the United States Ambassador, addressing the Pilgrims’ Club, referred to the tremehdous growth of friendship in the United States for Britain. Alluding to the Imperial Conference, he said that since the Council of Empire had been broadened a famous phrase had disappeared entirely. “Nobody now rests comfortably upon the assumption that England will ‘muddle through’ somehow. Her present disposition is to grapple with difficult problems promptly, energetically, and determinedly, and leave as little as possible to chance. This change of attitude is fuller of promise and hope for Britain and Britishers than any other which has occurred since the war.” CLOUDS DISPERSED.

Colonel Harvey referred to the period of his ambassadorship, with special reference to the Washington Conference. ‘ ‘lf that had not happened, there would still be hovering over the world, in addition to the troubles now besetting it, the clouds of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, which, having served its original purpose, had become an actual menace to the peace of the three great nations, the clouds of a constant, everincreasing peril and of possible, even though accidental, clashes in the Pacific, the clouds multiplying from the necessity of self-protection of naval armaments to a degree never before imagined.” “SPLENDID DOMINIONS.”

Colonel Harvey proceeded, moved by the presence of Mr Stanley Bruce, to make the compliments of a former British colony to the Elmpire’s splendid dominions. He compared the representatives of 1921, when he arrived, with to-day’s delegation, and said: “They appear more confident of their footing. Experience, apparently, has made them not more independent, but really more English, enabling them to express their needs in the attractive alliteration of men, money, and markets.” MR. BRUCE’S TRIBUTE.

Mr Stanley Bruce, in proposing the ohairman’s health, received, an ovation, both at the commencement and the conclusion of his speech. He paid a tribute to the United States’s amazing courage, and almost appalling initiative in calling together the Washington Conference, to which Australia paid a graceful tribute. It was the only eompenstion for the denunciation of the treaty with “our courageous and everfaithrul ally Japan.”

Amid laughter and cheers, Mr Bruce reminded Mr Baldwin that he received the inspiration about a debt settlement from Australia, which was the first to fund its debt. His only regret was that Australia did not get as good terms from Britain as Britain got from America. It was his obvious duty to submit that Britain would not be acting ungenerously if she granted Australia terms similar to those she received from America.