The Southland Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. MONDAY, JUNE 20, 1921. BRITAIN AND AMERICA.

Southland Times, Issue 19255, 20 June 1921, Page 4

The Southland Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. MONDAY, JUNE 20, 1921. BRITAIN AND AMERICA.

The discussion in the House of Commons on the Imperial Conference served to reveal the strong pro-American, feeling in the parliament. The Anglo-Japanese Treaty formed the subject of some interesting statements, and while there was a strong current of opinion in favour of a renewal of the alliance, it was clear that the primary consideration in the eyes of British statesmen is that American sympathies should not be jeopardised. Washington at the present time is looking to Britain with more friendliness even than President Wilson did. The Democrat cabinet was not whole-heartedly in sympathy with an AngloAmerican understanding and on more than one occasion some of Mr Wilson’s ministers mistook anti-British ideas for “100 per cent. Americanism.” With President Harding in office there has been a change in the administration. Quarrels between departments allowing a man who was regarded as a political undesirable to land and evade the instructions of the State Department are not likely now, as the prompt action in the Eastside case shows. President Harding may be anxious to bring into being .a nonWilsonian League of Nations, and to throw himself open to a charge of party manoeuvring as a result, but his attitude towards Britain is unequivocal. There is much talk in the United States about hatred of Britain and probably an. equal amount of illconsidered statements of a similar nature in the Old Country, but the statesmen in both nations have no doubts about the need of one for the other. President Harding is anxious to bring the great branches of the English-speaking race into close co-opera-tion, even if an alliance is too much to ask the Congress to accept. It is interesting to notice that when he was suddenly asked by Sir Philip Gibbs for a message to the British people, President Harding, though a little startled at the unheralded request, said:

Friendship between the United States and Great Britain is essential for the welfare of the world. Americans of the old stock look upon England as the Mother Country, and we regard that always as a cherished inheritance, not to be forgotten.

The president is credited by his friends with being very careful in his choice of words and it is extraordinary that he should use the term Mother Country in such a context. If this declaration were an isolated instance of his eagerness to cement the friendship between the two countries it might be passed over, but Mr Harding has given utterance to similar sentiments through diplomatic channels in unmistakable language. These facts suggest that when the dominion prime ministers discuss the Anglo-Japanese Treaty, the attitude of the American people will be taken into account. There is, of course, no fear that the treaty will be accepted in any form likely to bring us into conflict with the United States. The Japanese are aware of this view and the old treaty provided that we should not be involved in any war between Japan and the United States, although the name of the last-named country was not specifically mentioned. Perhaps the new treaty will be made more explicit, but whatever is done the Imperial statesmen will undoubtedly have before them throughout the discussion the vital fact that the Empire and the United States must co-operate without reserve if the warracked world is to recover.