DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XLIV, Issue 14007, 11 March 1920, Page 2

DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA.

lI.—PROSPECTS OF THE LEAGUE

- : -,'• (By Mbretdn "■'._ :';-tii a "previous Icttbr Lv'dreavv cion "to; the increasing vfiiich-, the' League ot^Nations•;Mea~is -beset because--©? the quite. unnecesaaTy ;,. animosities with: which- Prudent Wil,soh is now begirt. If any' -«n» . jnan eould thus late in the 'day help the •; President out, that ihafi is happily be- ; bind the lions; couchante in 4 Connecticut Avenue. Viscount Grey' is a Briton ■ who makes a very strong appeal to the American community, which has admired the courage, candor, and single mindednes& of his conduct of the Foreign ' Office. ,'• There., js' also a. -legacy! ;-from Roosevelt rpf personal jegard; al- : most of affection, tor our new. Ambassador, begotten of a day's walk; amongst the song birds of the : N«w Forest. Adol to -this the physical affliction;'which has overtaken one who is known to derive the chief inspiration of life from -his loving touch with Dame Nature, and- all that is best in the public sym- - pathy has expanded toward, that gallant and pathetic figure. "With a nation: ao imaginative, Grey now counts as a great 'force, behind" tho League' idea. .And yefc; I have little hope for the League, presented-on any such lines as hitherto. I am told by those who saw something, of the President's great audiences when "swing* ing around" the "Western circle;.•.•thateven his eloquences-arid he can; be Sequent—aroused far more curiosity than conviction. .Mr Wilson is himself; very quickly moved by contact with great crowds, and it was probably his subtle*' uense that he was not,' carrying his audiences which made the strain_ too intolerable for one of his emotional. temperament - I have not yet visited Washington, and for perhaps a valid reason. There is an old Persian proverb, "Under the Tamp, darkness," and from past experience j think this does-hold-good of Washington. At a crisis such as this, men there are obliged to play politics ata'd to present, not what they believe, but what they desire you should believe. And. too, the political conscripts are just now very busy ('hearing from home"—their minds are often being made up for them 2000 miles away. As matters are, I have come rather reluctantly to the corivic- ■•' tion that the President's position will nut be sustained by his countrymen, that the wbrld'-s peace will have to be secured by less^idealistic methods, and that so far as the United States is concerne'd her international participation on anv lines thut. far prepared cannot be reckoned with. Had there, been at the White Hous:o one of the McKinley order of men, quite- another page might have been written for "Fate's dark book." but the President has endeavored to bludgeon the country in. The C'ln'-iitutior. is not, however, built to permit any such_ coup d'etat, and these ■heroic remedies are opposed Jay the .sober second thought. But after Xovembpr, 1020, should the Republifav party come to judgment with a large majority, f should expect th»i problem of world peace to be uppermost.

It is understood here, though the secret is well kept, that to President Wil=on was committed a. mandate entrust-, ing the future of Constantinople to tin; .Americans. But any such suggestion coming from the .present head of tlio 'State, and at this time, would utterly defeat its purpose. Nevertheless, T venture to forecast that much will be heart! of this project during the next Administration. Tt is curious and interesting to recall that it was the late AV. T Stead who advanced, "this idea to tho. then Tsar of all the Russias about a quarter of a century, ago, and on returning from St. Petersburg ho told mo that, tho Tsar had replied,. "Yours is indeed a counsel of perfection, but tha United States would refuse it,- and England would not permit it-. Those aro the two rather practical objections." It happened that a little later Senatoi Cnhop Lodge was in London: and. at tiny suggestion, he talked, this "vision of the Bosphot-us" over with Stead and the writer, the Senator's view at that time quite bearing out the Tsar's presentment.' But. sjrjco .arriving- on' thin continent a few weeks since, I am inclined to think that, the United Statea might consent to oceuny this "Peace Gibraltar," as Stead phrased it, if tho iiceupaiicy could he arranged without, the "entangling alliances" which wero the menace r of Washington's farewell message.

Thoughtful men, representative • of the great interests, chiefly perhaps of the Republican Party, have said to mo in the last few days, "We see that your control of Gibraltar and Malta, of Aden, and Hong Kong makes for the. world's peace, as also, does oingrip of Panama and even our settle ' ments at Honolulu and Manila, and that in none of these cases is there for us or for you any 'entanglements.' " Would it .be possible, they say, for the United States to fiv her flag under th.' protection of her great fleet over a few square miles on the Bosnhorus. and in doing so settle incidentally a dozen great problems ' which threaten the world with future wars? Thosi' thoughtful men recognise that America could reconstruct Russia with railways from the south, and only from the south, and that were Constantinople a railway entrepot for Russia and Asia, comparable with the dominance of Chicago in the American system, immense trade currents could be. made to radiate from that Doint, such ne might greatly assist the world's trade and labor problem during the century at hand. Such an occupancy, too, would make of Constantinople the, most beautiful capital in the world. Winter and summer it would f>e a Vast rendezvous tinder their own Hag for rich Americans'afloat and ashore in search of health, sport, and adventure. The twin appeals, big business on the one hand, and a Jofty Jmniaiiitarianism on the other, these are of the sort which might well, if carefully staged, stampede, public opinion ni tho case of a community so imaginative as this. '

ft may not be inopportune to sketch, thus briefly and in advance, for tho consideration of English readers, a problem colossal and many-sided. but which would be likely to satisfy tho Turk, secure England's Far Eastern possessions, and be for the Englishspeaking peoples as the dawning of ;i new dav.