INTERNATIONAL ARBITRA

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 13672, 10 April 1908, Page 5

INTERNATIONAL ARBITRA-

BRITAIN AND UNITED STATES. PROTECTION OF COLONIES' INTERESTS. By Electric Telegraph. — Copyright. LONDON, April 9. The Foreign Relations Committee of the" United States Senate has reported I favourably on the arbitration treaty between Britain and the United States. This ensures its ratification. .The, Morning Post's Washington correspondent "sends the text of the treaty. It has a currency •of five years. Like the treaty between the United States arid France, it provides that before any question is submitted to the Hague Convention a special agreement must bo * concluded defining the matter of t^e dispute and other formalities, but the clause embodies two important additions. . The first is that no such preliminary , agreement shall be binding in respect of Britain until the terms are approved ! by the Senate and accepted' by Britain through an exchange of notes. The second provision is still more im-" portant, namely r Britain' reserves the right, before concluding a special agreement in- any matter affecting the interests of a self-governing dominion, to obtain the concurrence therein of the Government of that- Dominion. The Morning Post says this clause constitutes welcome recognition of the position of the autonomous members of |he Empire, but emphasises the need of some organisation within the Empire representing the unity of aim in policy between Britain and the other nations and States, of the Empire.