BRITAIN AND AMERICA.

Otago Witness, Issue 2988, 21 June 1911, Page 10

BRITAIN AND AMERICA.

EVE OF A GREAT TREATY. SPEECH BY SIR EDWARD GREY. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, March 17. The debate in the Commons on Monday on the Naval Estimates turned out better for the Government than at one time seemed probable. Owing to the proposed increase of f'mr million pounds, some of the Liberal papers had criticised the big naval expenditure as unjustifiable, and, in a mild way, preached revolt against Mr M'Kenna's department. Mr Murray Macdonald, a Radical member, moved 1 -—" That this House views with alarm the enormous increase during recent years in the expenditure en the army and the navy, and is of opinion that it ought to be diminished."

To this an amendment was proposed from the Liberal benches (favouring the " establishment of international arrangements under which the Great Powers would simultaneously restrict their warlike preparations. Mr Macdomald's motion was defeated by 220 majority, and ihe amendment was. carried without a division.

The debate was noteworthy for a speech by Sir Edward Grey, vho made a significant allusion to the possibility of a treaty of arbitration between Groat Britain and the United States, covering all questions, even those of .honour, "ikely to arise between the two countries.

In the course of a long speech Sir Edward Grey said: "It may be that within the limits of the s German naval law agreements might be reached as to retardation in any particular year, and agreement might make it certain that there would be no addition to the present programme in Germany. All that is subject for discussion between the two Governments, but, remember, it must always hs within those limits. She believes it due to herself to have a strong navy, and that is the position no one can prevent her taking up. Germany in her turn has regarded our Naval Estimates as a provocation to her." ARBITRAL lON. He could see but on*.- thing which which would atilsct naval and military expenditure on a wholesale scale if there was to be real reiief. They v.ould not get it t"U nations did what individuals had done--oome to regard an appeal to law as the natural course for nations instead of an appeal to force.—(Loud' cheers.) Public opinion had' been moving. Arbitration had been increasing, but a large step further must be taken before it affected expenditure on armaments.

He should not have spent time in looking at arbitration, as something which would really touch that great question' had it not been that twice in the last 12 months the President of the United States had sketched out a step in advance of arbitration more momentous than anything that any practical statesman in his position bad ventured to say before, pregnant with consequences and very far-reaching. He hoped public opinion would rise to the high pJa.ne attained by the President of the United States. Suppose two of the greatest nations of the _ world came to an agreement that in no circumstances would they go to war against each other, the effect of the example on the world at large was bound to have magnificent consequences. If two great nations agreed together that they were not going to fight, it would be to their interest to join together to keep the peace of the world. _ He did _ not think a statement of this ktnd coming from the President of the United States ought to go without response. His proposals, he recognised, would entail certain risks. He was prepared to accept those risks, and was prepared to make

»me sacrifice of national pride. If such a proposal wore made- to this country, we should be delighted to have it. A piroposition so far-reaching in its possible consequences would require not only the signature of both Governments, but the- deliberate assent of Parliament. He believed that would be obtained. He admitted an enormous change would have to take place. Progress might be slow, but public opinion of the -world at large might insist, if itb was fortunate enough to find leaders who had courage enough, upon, finding some relief from the burden of armaments in this direction. Armies and navies would remain, no doubt, but they would remain not in rivalry with each other, but as the police force of the world. They might not live to see the proposal carried, into effect, but he hoped they would live to see substantial progress made, a<nd there wa6 no reason why they should not press forward in that direction. What was impossible in onegeneration might become possible in another. The nations of the world were in bondage at the present time, but they might soon discover that law was a better remedy than force, and that all the time they had been in bondage the prison door had been locked on the Inside.