LEAGUE OF NATIONS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19799, 17 November 1919, Page 5

LEAGUE OF NATIONS.

AMERICA FEARS BRITISH PREPONDERANCE.

[From Oxm Correspondent.] LAN FRANCISCO, October 14. A great campaign is proceeding against blie League of Nations. For the past two weeks Senator Hiram W. Johnson, former Governor of California, has been touring the "West in what appeal’s to be a very successful attempt to rouse sentiment against the League. The Senator, formerly a Roosevelt Progressive, but now back in the Repuhiicim fold, is an able and ambitious man, and it is openly said that his real objective is tile presidential chair though possibly not at the first opportunity. it is abundantly dear that much of the opposition to tile League is purely and oiiuply oie<.uoneoi*aig, but that vica tioc.s not cover the wnoie ground. 1 here .g hOinotiiiug in the "Haws” that political ingenuity aas discovered, and when these are added, with embellishment.., to an appeal to the prejudice of die mob, support in too North and we-l is obtained. Americans are keenly deSii-ous tfi.it tin- pot should melt j most thoroag.ily. cud when opposition I loaners v, a. spar li.e suspicion that the ■ ailonnh-tnifoti is pro-British, the 1 strong it: .mug., are aroused, ami roa--1 sonabJo Americanism may become perj VC, j Shrewd observers think that if the Ao.miinstrai' trims the Treaty somej v.imt tiie u cubic will blow over and the j documcnc be ratified. The Republicans arc in a majority in both Houses, however. and prophecy is very unsafe. ..Hmc is the case lor the opposition: ' nder the present arrangement the j British Umpire would have more power I in (ho League of Nations, more to say | and to do, than the United States, and j Amor,..-;!ns will not accept such a thiim |as just and right. Why, it is asked, j should the United States, with more . sovereign citizens than all the sovereign subjects of the British Empire, have less to say than Britain? From the American viewpoint that question is unanswerable. President Wilson speaks internationally. Ho contends that the United states cannot live her Hie selfishly aloof from the rest of the world. Johnson claims to speak as an American, iio says that the United States wont into tho war to gain nothing temporarily, and gained nothing temporarily. The Senator claims that the European nations and Japan did nob sit at the conference table unselfishly, and Wiiilc they wore pretending to bo 'actuated _by the same lofty motives of the President, they were grabbing (right and left, each astute diplomat thinking only of, his own country. America is disinterested. She does not want new territories or now peoples. But" before Wilson wont to Paris, the cards had been stacked on him. Treaties of which Jio knew nothing, had been entered into. It was there that he made Ins great mistake. He refused to take Congress and the American people into Ins confidence. 'He suffered the treaties to be written into the Covenant and camo homo and told the people ’ that they must accept the instrument as it was framed in Paris, without reserva, tions or amendments. In other words, the United States must lend the weight of Her aimed forces, her blood, to protecting the boundary lines, divisions and distributions which were agreed upon in laris. Ihe United States must consent to the rape of Shantung, nnmt hght an "undisclosed war” in Siberia, nature of which the people know n °^' n U- auist, police the* coal mines ot Silesia, must keep Americans on the Rhino lor fifteen years, must lane! troops at Tran, in Dalmatia, to ouell a disturbance of which the United States knows nothing and has no interosfc. In fine, the hinted States must be -embroiled in every controversy in Europe and Asia, willy-nilly. Controversies are already raging in those countries. , “ vofct! oa the Shantung amendments is expected in a week or ten days It is then proposed to deal with ' the six-to-oue 7 amendment moved by senator Johnson, which aims at oqual- , ismg British and American voting otiength on the League of Nations. JOHNSON ANSWERED. Mr Homy 1< rank addressed a crowded meeting here last night in defence of tho League. Referring to Mr T Johnson's warning that the League would bo another Holy Alliance, ho said:— “ Let us admit that the action of great nations in adding hundreds of thousands of square miles to their domains is a grab and a steal. Do the senators tell in what should have been done? Are they fearful Jest certain great financial interests hoio will not have a linger in the game? If France and Italy are not jealous of Great Britain, why should wo he: Because the Holy Alliance ono hundred years am) destroyed revolutions, is that an argument? Because stealthy mouarchs perverted treaties in 1821, is that a sign Ahat .honest men cannot keep their word? In our age, mouarchs arc being hurled from their thrones by people who cry for justice and liberty, it, is grossly absurd to conjure up the past and its betrayals in an age that has democracy for its watchword." Mi blank defended Britain's foreign policy. Why, he asked, had Senator Johnson so much to say against Great Britain and so little to say against Germany? Dealing with Shantung, he fianl it would bo better to bare Japan expand to Asia than to Europe. Tim aigmncnfc against the use of American troops in Siberia looked very strong on the face of it., but those soldiers wore there to keep tho waves of the Bolshevik horror from sweeping over the world. Each nation was to send 7600 troops. < Japan sent 70,000, and >n a. short while she would have seized the richest part of Russia, with which she could have overawed Europe. To withdraw would be disastrous, as it would permit Siberia, to he possessed by Japan. Why denounce Shantung, lie asked, and keep our eyes closed to Siberia?