The Wanganui Chronicle. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 26, 1945. INTERNATIONAL CO-OPERATION

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 89, Issue 304, 26 December 1945, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 26, 1945. INTERNATIONAL CO-OPERATION

CPEAKLXG in the year 1929 President Calvin Coolidge said: “The day of American isolation is done.’' Jt was a true saying but too few people in his own country believed it. They had been drugged by prosperity. They believed they had attained to an era of permanent prosperity. While that mood lasted Anlerica was not to be counted on to co-operate with the rest of the world. (•no of the stumbling blocks on the road In co-operation was the problem of the war debts. Britain, rich and powerful, the country to which the greatest measure of credit for winning the war was in debt to America. America had fought the war to “save democracy,” but Americans did not intend to confuse democracy with flic I nited Kingdom. When faced with this problem of the war debts Calvin Coolidge peered through his glasses and said, “The money was loaned, wasnt’ it ?” Alter World War One the United Kingdom invested millions in world stability, despite the absence of any settlement of the account with the American nation. There was no doubt a belief that example was the best of arguments and that if a sufficiently good example were set the world an all-round settlement of war costs would be worked out. This expected reaction, however, was not realised. Actually with many Americans it misfired: it was evidence that Britain bad money in the bank' and consequently there was no need to scale down her indebtedness to America. This view was not held by either official America, the men and women who comprised the administration at Washington, nor by the wider informed public which supported this view of the Adniinistratio::. The broader vision was there but it was not held by a sufficiently large number of people in that large and, at the time, prosperous country. The situation seemed to be both tantalising and hopeb - Then came the Great Depression ami America learned the sweet uses of adversity. The depression compelled a larger nur. - her of people to think more deeply than they ever did hew-’.:. There were the usual false prophets, those who proclaimed that a national pension for all was a natural right and that it was possible at an early age and on a generous scale. There were those who proclaimed that all would be well if only the handle of the printing press were turned with sufficient persistence. There were other strange economic acraeadabra spoken but the fact remained that America was suffering the longest and the deepest depress:.-n of any country in the world. America saw her harbours empty of goods, her factories with, out their wheels turning, her workers looking hopelessly down their main streets. V hat was wrong ? America found that the world was doing as Americans had bid them, doing without America amt Americans. America had the gold and she was left in splendid, isolation to contemplate the golden calf. It was a hard lesson but it is to the credit of the American people that they were willing to learn and they did learn their lesson. That lesson was that if America wished to ensure' her prosperity this could only be done in a world that was prosperous. There was no such thing' as prosperity in the midst of poverty for America" nor for any other country. When the British financial Mission went to Washington during last year its members did not go as suppliants, nor did they ask for assistance for Great Britain : they invited I lie United Stales to invest in world economic stability. They did not ask for payment because Britain was the first to fight for the free and held oil Hillers hordes alone while America made up the leeway of her unpreparedness. It was not a request to pay for services rendered, Inn an illx itall<ni io engage in a positive act of faith to ensure the future prosperity of the world. Whatever may be thought of the Anglo-American loan this much is certain, it is evidence of the desire of a large number of Americans—sufficient in numbers io sway the nation—to renounce isolationism and to engage wholeheartedly in a policy of international co-operation. Esperientia docel. but only with those w o are willing to l< aim.