The Timaru Herald FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1934. AMERICA IN EUROPE.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 19958, 16 November 1934, Page 8

The Timaru Herald FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1934. AMERICA IN EUROPE.

Ono of the most important developments in the relationships of the United States with world problems that come up for com sideration at Geneva, is that officially the United States proposes to make what may be that great country's Inst gesture towards salvaging some tangible accomplishment from the Disarmament Conference. Hence the worldwide interest in the announcement that the State Department at Washington has drafted a convent ion to provide for control over Ihe arms traffic similar to that negotiated at Geneva in 1925, which American envoys are now presenting to various European countries prior to its formal consideration by the Disarmament Bureau at Geneva. Reports from Washington say: The text of the convention has not been made public, but it is understood that it would license both the export and import of arms, with full publicity demanded for all international transactions. It is pointed out that the Administration hopes to negotiate the convention through the Disarmament Conference, but as a separate treaty and not part of any general treaty that might be concluded.

Interest in this important move on the part of high official circles in the United States will not be focussed altogether on the subject of the American proposal, but in tlie fact that the United States lias so far stepped out of her traditional isolation as to approach the Powers due to assemble at Geneva next week, with the deliberate object of promoting and concluding, if possible, an international understanding on a question of worldwide importance. Wide awake Americans are already realising the fundamental change—the epoch—in American foreign policy marked by the gradual and little-realised assumption of consultative rights and duties; indeed, what has been described as the return of the United States in Europe is being widely discussed in observant circles in London and on the Continent. It is therefore, interesting to recall how in the last four years the United States has returned to the world community. The story of this change of attitude is told for the first time fully and clearly in Russell M. Cooper’s timely book “American Consultation in World Affairs.” Leading reviewers of this masterly examination of the new relationship between tlie United States and world

affairs, suggest that the return of the United States to participation in world crises by means of the “consultative” method, has many resemblances to a dream in which the sleeper tries zealously to reach a goal, and finds his feet, though on an apparently clear path, fantastically weighted down. After tlie defeat of tlie League of Nations Covenant in the United States Senate, it was a scant two years before the Harding Administration had pledged the country in two treaties to fullest and most obligatory consultation in perhaps the world’s most dangerous area. Then the dream switched backward, and for seven years no progress toward consultation with other powers was made. In 1929, in his two consultations over the Sino-Russian dispute, Mr Henry L. Stimson passed through the door to the world community which the Briand-Kellogg Pact had opened. But in 1930, through the vagaries of the London Naval Conference—which Mr Cooper describes very accurately—consultation was “off-agin, on-agin.” In 1932, however, President Hoover and Mr Stimson brought forth the idea of world consultation implicit in the Pact of Paris, and pledged that the United States would be at the council table of nations when trouble arose. President-Elect Roosevelt joined in, because through assiduous peace-lobbying a consultative jdank had been inserted into both party platforms at the Chicago conventions. In 1933 the new Administration, through Mr Norman TT. Davis and the President, made this momentous reentrance of the United States to Ihe community of nations a promised fact. Moreover, the American representatives now sit as members of the International Labour Organisation at Geneva. What does “consultation” mean? That the United States is ready to bind itself “to consult with the other Powers in case of a threat to peace, with a view to averting conflict,” in the words of Mr Davis’s pledge to the Disarmament Conference. By this assurance, the other peoples are able to know where the United States will stand in a conflict. This, in turn, should permit Great Britain to assume duties of peaceenforcing on the Continent implicit in the Locarno Treaties. To the United States this means that American interests in averting a conflict will be practically safeguarded, and that the United States will not be dangerously isolated—either in front of or behind the peace forces. PROVISION OF AIR PORTS. Increased airmindedness in the Dominion which has been created by the remarkable performances of New Zealand airmen in the greatest air race in the history of the world, will no doubt turn the attention of the Government and the aviation authorities to the

call for a bold forward policy in relation to improved facilities for the handling of aircraft. The remarks made by tlie Minister of Defence, the Hon. .T. G. Cobbe, on air transport and the provision of landing facilities are therefore most timely, and apart from the interesl ing informal ion disclosed, they show that Ihe Government is closely watching aviation progress. For a number of years, air services have been operating in various parts of the world with great regularity and efficiency; and the remarkable records possessed by Imperial Airways for instance, show that aeroplanes are destined to take a very important place in the world’s commerce. The Centenary Air Race did of course, centre world attention on the utilisation of aviation, and its lessons, including the opinion taken by Mr Anthony Eokker, that air liners Would largely displace ocean liners, could not but give much food for thought. Already a faster schedule has been proposed for the coming air service between England and Australia, and as this service should be in regular operation at an early date, it is well that New Zealand should be prepared for the time that must Come, when the whole Empire will be connected by air lines. The disaster that has befallen the initial flight in the Brisbane to Singapore section of the London to Australia air mail service is most regrettable, but nothing of that kind can delay the inauguration of a fast and safe air mail service between the Homeland and the outposts of the Empire. Apart from her relatively small population, New Zealand’s topography lias probably affected the more general use of aircraft; but now because of the modern aeroplan’s efficiency, New Zealand’s topography and the irregular nature of her coastline, are two reasons why air transport in this country will be a great advantage. Up to the present, according to the information given by Mr Cobbe, reports had been made, on. 90 airports, aerodromes and emergency ground sites. Construction work had commenced on 21, improvement work had been authorised on 23, and 28 had been surveyed. Unemployed labour is being used on the main grounds, and there is much soundness in the Minister’s contention that the labour is creating an asset for the Dominion. The construction of aerodromes in some cases, because air transport is only in its infancy in this country, might not be immediately necessary, but the work should be of great value in the not far distant future. Even though the Government is interesting itself in the matter, the provision of landing grounds, however, as is the rule throughout the Empire, is essentially a local task; so, no doubt, quite a number of local bodies throughout the Dominion will he able to consider undertaking such work as a sound method of absorbing unemployed labour.