BRITAIN AND AMERICA

Southland Times, Issue 23394, 29 December 1937, Page 7

BRITAIN AND AMERICA

“PARALLEL ROAD TO PEACE” NEW FORCE AGAINST WAR NECESSITY FOR SUCCESS OF TRADE TALKS (United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright) (Received Dec. 28, 8.20 p.m.) LONDON, December 28. If the Christmas season has seen a perceptible relegation of the diplomatic tension, that welcome effect may be attributed in no little way to the harmonious attitude and action of the British and American governments, says The Daily Telegraph in a leading article.

Describing as significant The New York Times’s editorial urging parallel British and American roads towards peace, The Daily Telegraph adds: “Such a declaration is no less welcomed and reciprocated in Britain, because there is no thought that such parallel action would be used by either party to pull out the other’s chestnuts from, the fire.” The News Chronicle considers the article in The New York Times so remarkable and its significance so great that it reproduces it in full, with the editorial comment: “We entirely agree.” The Daily Herald says: “Present now in the international situations is a new force on the side of peace. It is the co-operation of Britain and the United States. “Yet one thing that will kill this cooperation stone dead is failure of the British and American trade negotiations through the insistence of sectional interests here upon the maintenance of big tariffs. Another would be Britain’s failure to honour her obligations under the Covenant of the League of Nations.” IMPORTANT TALKS AT WASHINGTON OTTAWA CONFERENCE ON SMALL SCALE ' LONDON, December 16. Meetings at Washington may develop into a minor Ottawa Conference with serious negotiations between the United States on the one hand and Britain and Canada on the other, which are expected to begin in January. British officials already have gone to America to prepare the way and others will follow early in January. The Canadians are sending representatives, and it is expected in London that the Commonwealth will send a Minister. Details of the procedure are still most vague. It is not clear whether discussions relating strictly to the Ottawa Agreement will be confined to Washington or whether an Empire Conference elsewhere will follow, perhaps at Ottawa itself. Britain desires to work throughout in the closest collaboration with the Dominions.

While the idea is still undeveloped, it has been suggested that, as the Anglo-American negotiations involve considerable Ottawa adjustments, the whole question of the revision of the Ottawa Agreement might be dovetailed with the trade pact. Special Ottawa items involved in Anglo-American proposals will have to be handled first. A general overhaul in .the light of the economic appeasement policy might be the next step. A trade treaty between Australia and America will presumably be discussed . simultaneously with the Anglo-American pact, with which it will be most closely bound up.

It is expected that the announcement of the appointment of a Commonwealth Commissioner-General to the United States will follow the treaty.