The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING, Luceo Non Uro. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1923. THE WORLD IS ONE.

Southland Times, Issue 19098, 16 November 1923, Page 4

The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING, Luceo Non Uro. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1923. THE WORLD IS ONE.

Out of the welter and confusion of the international situation, the growth of one conviction is manifest, viz, that co-oper-ation is essential—that (he welfare of all nations is wrapped up in the belief that in interests and destiny the world is one. This sentiment has found national endorsement in Britain, and has been the guiding principle in her policy on foreign affairs in recent years. Its operation caused the Marquess Curzon to propose lately the investigation into the reparations problem, and although that proposal has been indefinitely deferred, at least some comfort can be gained from the knowledge that it in*, creased the sentiment in America in favour of, and hopeful for, co-operation with Europe. . The popular acclaim with which Dr Woodrow Wilson’s denunciation of the past policy of inaction and indifference has been received shows that national opinion is veering from the doctrine of isolation —though how deep the movement goes we cannot yet say—and this is of world-wide importance. It is a case where the traditional policy has to be jettisoned; where a departure has to be made from old, accepted precedents and new decisions taken on new problems. That participation by America in world-affairs is unwise has been a conviction born of the promulgation of the Monroe Doctrine, which, however, all impartial observers cannot fail to realise is now nothing but a name. It served a useful purpose, but now fails to functir- because of changed conditions.

At the time of its inauguration nearly one hundred years ago, this policy was, as Mr A. L. Haddon, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald contends, a necessary principle of American self-preservation. And it was more. As Canning (the British Premier whose suggestion really brought about the famous declaration by President Monroe), said in a later review of his policy, he had

“called the new world into existence to redress the balance of the old.” A policy thus acceptable on both sides of the Atlantic was not likely soon to be altered. It took firm hold on the American mind, and while the Republic had nothing to get from Europe, she was content with isolation. Circumstances are gradually changing the national outlook. To-day the United States has vast trading interests in all parts of the globe, and needs old world markets for her prosperity. She is no longer aloof, whether she retains the Monroe Doctrine or not. Some of her statesmen have long ago realised that it is nothing but a phrase, but political cliques have, again and again, used it as a lever to sene their own ends; as a chain with which to bind leaders of vision and prevent them from exercising their full influence in the world’s affairs, President Wilson in 1917 spoke boldly for the thinkers of his land. “This is the last war of the kind, of any kind, which involves the world, that the United States can keep out of. I say this because the day of our neutrality is over.” But when his successor suggested American advocacy of a World Court he stirred up e host of deep-seated prejudices, which made him think long and carefully. This ha.‘ happened at every new turn in the pathway of American progress. But it i? another story that tells to what extent the hindrance has been effectual, and how it is gradually being overcome by the rc cognition of the fact that under modern conditions no nation can stand in “splen did isolation.” Commerce is so interwoven internationally that, even if humanitarian considerations fail to act as an incentive to co-operative action, it will of its own weight and urgency cause America to participate in finding the solution of a crisis which knows no national bounds and which is making its baneful effects felt throughout the world. In speeding the arrival of the day whereon ihe United States will do the right thing I by her own people as well as by the suffering people of Europe, the scathing casti gation which Dr Woodrow Wilson issuer, on Armistice Day should prove a powerful factor.