Happier Relations

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 813, 6 November 1929, Page 9

Happier Relations

BRITAIN AND AMERICA Mr. MacDonald’s Review HOW Great Britain and tlie United States of America were facing the problems of international relations with a keener understanding and desire for co-operation was explained by the Rt. Hon. Ramsay MacDonald in his review of his American visit given to the House of Commons yesterday. Mr. MacDonald stressed the fact that he went as a national representative and not as a party leader, and spoke appreciatively of the useful preliminary work done by liis predecessors. British Official Wireless

LONDON, Tuesday. The Rt.. Hon. Ramsay MacDonald in the House of Commons, reported upon his visit to the United States of America and Canada. He said what success the visit had was largely owing to the hearty support of all parties in this country. He went out, not as a party leader, but as a national representative. He took the opportunity of thanking President Hoover and his and both Senate and the House of Representatives for the welcome they gave him and the honour paid him as representative of this country. He spoke of the candour with which difficult questions were raised and discussed, and said that though some of the matters he had to deal with might easily have aroused prejudices, from beginning to end he found nothing but thoughtfulness and a desire to co-operate. The purpose of his visit was to try, by personal contact, to establish new relations between the two peoples, based on mutual understanding, not only of the common objects to be pursued, but of the natural differences to be respected. The results must be left to fructify in policy and action. FEARS REMOVED The conversations he had had earlier ■with General Dawes had already removed the fear that unbridged differences between United States of America and Great Britain would doom any international conference to l?—«s;re. Both President Hoover and he recognised that the agreement they were seeking was one not merely between themselves, but one which would have to fit into wider co-opera-tion and a final settlement dependent on a Five-Power conference. The other Powers would probably have much to say from their own viewpoints on the naval problems. They were discussing preliminary conversations with other Powers now, proceeding above and beyond the definite subject of naval agreement, said Mr. MacDonald. There was a desire to make it clear to everybody that, in our mutual relations, the Paris Peace Pact was a reality, and so in a joint statement a declaration to that effect was made for the first, time officially by representatives of the two nations speaking together. That declaration stated that both our Governments’ resolve to accept the peace pact, not only as a declaration of good intentions, but as a positive obligation and to direct their national policies in accordance with its pledges. In the light of such a declaration the solution of old problems had become possible. VIGILANT JEALOUSY “The United States of Amferica,” continued Mr. MacDonald, pursues, with vigilant jealousy, its historical policy of keeping free from all world entanglements, and is therefore not in the League of Nations. We are in the League of Nations. We have contracted obligations and we shall remain loyal to them. On neither side was any attempt made to change

these facts. in the course of the discussions the President raised some of the major historical causes of difference, such as belligerents’ rights, the so-called fortified bases, and so on, which are still active in forming public opinion, and it was agreed to examine them, and I believe nothing but good can come from the exchange of views on these questions.’* Mr. MacDonald, concluding, expressed great appreciation of the welcome he had received in Canada, where he discussed with the Hon. W. L. MacKenzie King matters which had arisen in Washington of special interest to Canada, and political and economic subjects of mutual concern. Mr. Stanley Baldwin and Mr. Lloyd George cordially congratulated Mr. MacDonald bn his tour, and agreed as to the inestimable value of the contact thus established with the United States of America. “I WISHED TO GO" MR. BALDWIN REVEALS DISAPPOINTMENT MR. LLOYD GEORGE’S QUERIES Reed 12.25 p.m. LONDON, Tuesday. “I won’t disguise from the House that though I ant not greedy for power there was one thing I always hoped to do, namely, go to America as Prime Minister and try personally to improve Anglo-American relations,” said Mr. Baldwin. “I rejoice that it has been done, and hope it will not he the last of such visits.” Mr. Lloyd George desired to join in congratulating Mr. MacDonald, whose visit was an unquestioned success from every viewpoint. Without real goodwill between nations all pacts for the abolition of war would be mere scraps of paper. Mr. MacDonald had rendered a real service to world peace by clearing the atmosphere and introducing a more genial element into Anglo-American relations. Mr. Lloyd George said that he was more glad because he had doubted the wisdom of visiting America before the Five-Power Conference.

Mr. Lloyd George wished Mr. MacDonald had told them more of the concrete results of the commitments. Was there an Anglo-American understanding regarding cruisers, submarines, the size of guns, and what is known as the “freedom of the seas.” He was continuing to put other questions when Labourites shouted, “Wrong time.”

Mr. Lloyd George did not think he had said anything to provoke the Labourites. Hfi had been studiously conciliatory. “I am entitled to ask these questions,” he said. Had Mr. MacDonald discussed in America general disarmament questions and debts, which is the most important to Britain? Was there any intention to give us most favoured nation treatment in respect to debts?