THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 10, 1921. TREATIES AND PEACE,

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18320, 10 August 1921, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 10, 1921. TREATIES AND PEACE,

From time to time the prospects of such a measure of disarmament as will promote the pursuit of peace seem to undergo sudden • changes. Sometimes the road towards peace looks clear and easy; at others it appears certain that the road will be difficult and to some extent dangerous. Situated as we are at a great distance from the heart of things so far as foreign politics are concerned, it is sometimes very difficult for us to understand the apparent contradictions of policy in various Yesterday the cablegrams contained the news that Mr Lloyd George and the dominion Prime Ministers are vexed over the refusal of the United States to consider an understanding between Great Britain, Japan, and America to take the place of the Japanese Alliance. ' It is indisputably true that the foreign policy of America is uncertain even when it is not of an involved character, but it must be remembered that the United States had already invited several nations to attend a conference on disarmament. To a certain extent she had entered into a bond of faith with those nations, and it may very possibly be conceived that she did not feel herself absolutely free to contract bargains with certain of those nations prior to the assembling of the full conference. Each country has a domestic difficulty of one sort or another and American events have conspired to place her outside the League of Nations in a position of embarrassing isolation. She has given evidence of harmony on many points of high policy with those nations which compose tho League, but she insists that her aspiration,—indeed “ the world aspiration ” —is “an association of nations, based upon the application of justice and right, binding us in conference and co-operation for tho prevention of war and pointing the way to higher civilisation and international fraternity in which all the world might share.” Those words are President Harding’s and they embody the principles of the League of Nations. The influence of the Treaty of Versailles and its relationship to tho League will vanish with time because the growth and success of the League means a bigger thing for the world than even the Treaty meant. President Harding has told Congress that “ the situation is so involved that our peace engagements cannot ignore tho Old World Relationship and the settlements already effected.” In other words, America realises that she cannot accept tho advantages of the Treaty and ignore her responsibilities under it. That she has in some degree declined the full assumption of the latter condition is true. Some allowance must, however, be made for her internal political situation. Her present disinclination to enter into alliances which outwardly seem likely to help the peace of the world* may in the final analysis prove a blessing in disguise, oven if that blessing be the outcome of political accident rather than of settled design.