THE UNITED STATES AND THE WORLD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21988, 24 June 1933, Page 10

THE UNITED STATES AND THE WORLD

There can be no complaint if, as is suggested in cable messages from London, the public is not to receive definite first-hand information as to the detailed work of the committees which have been set up by the World Economic Conference, The belief expressed by Mr Ramsay MacDonald that progress can best be made in committee is one that must generally be recognised as sound. can be useful in shaping public opinion and in preparing the world for extraordinary announcements, but the uses of it, if applied to every step in the negotiations in London, might he far from beneficial. The world to-day is, however, so intensely concerned with economic questions, and so vitally interested in the Conference at which the fortunes of the nations are in the balance, that it would be impossible to close down wholly the sources from which the public receives information respecting the course of the discussions. Although, therefore, the actual happenings in the inner committee chambers may he supposed to be enveloped in secrecy, conversation in the lobbies, observation supported by conjecture, and other mysterious sources of information may be expected to supply the material by mcans of which the public curiosity for an inkling of what is being done will be satisfied or, if not satisfied, certainly piqued. The latest reports indicate that in some circles, if not in the Conference itself, considerable apprehension exists respecting the degree of co-operation which the United States is prepared to extend in the attempt to settle temporarily one of the international difficulties. The old claim of the American people to the enjoyment of an isolation that is geographical rather than economic is represented as'threatening to retard progress. It seems permissible to assume, however, that the menace of this traditional bogey may be exaggerated. The arrogant self-sufficiency of a substantial proportion of the American people is to he acknowledged. The desire of Mr Roosevelt to alter this conception of the aloofness of America from the problems affecting the world, or if he cannot alter it, to defy it, was suggested in his pre-Conference statements, and in the favourable exchange of views which he had with Mr MacDonald. While the isolation fetish may constitute a danger to the success of the Conference, it must be remembered that Mr Roosevelt has had very extraordinary powers conferred on him by the Congress, and that he enjoys the confidence of the majority of the people of the United States. If ho is, in actual fact, bent upon maintaining the freedom of America from European “ entanglements,” he has chosen a most devious way of informing the world of his intentions. Indeed, the suggestion that he is determined upon trying out his

own panaceas is, in view of the enthusiasm which he exhibited in the preparation of the way for the Conference, a trifle fantastic. It is more possible that the President has found the opposition in his own country to his liberal international views more powerful than he at first realised. He has proved himself a strong and popular leader, however, and it is too early yet to accept as more than a half-truth the implication that his policy has undergone a radical change, which would rob the Economic Conference of some of the hopes of a major success.