The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 22, 1919. AMERICA AND THE ALLIES

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 100, 22 January 1919, Page 6

The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 22, 1919. AMERICA AND THE ALLIES

It is an open. question meantime how far' preliminary conversations between the American. President and Allied statesmen have assisted to pave the way to understanding 'and agreement at the Peace Congress. . ' Clear light 'will be thrown on the matter only when the Congress has announced its decision on some of. the larger questions submitted to it for settlement. ' Some observations made by President Wilson and reported to-day are full of promise, however, as indicating that he takes' such a view of the relations between his'own country and the Allied nations as should make in the .highest' degree for effective' international action in the interests of future peace. Me. Wilson was replying to a speech in which M. Dubost, President of the French Senate, had welcomed him as "the protagonist. of the sway of moral forces against the physical," and in sense and substance his reply was admirably restrained and matter-of-fact. There admittedly was a time, he. said, when the United States did not understand the war situation. Now that the'period of full understanding 1 was reached America was fast friends with France. After all that has been said about the moral predominance of the United States, frequently in terms of much more extravagant laudation than those employed by M. Dubost, the President's admission is refreshing in' its simple candour, and should do a great deal to clear the air. It is as frank an admission as could be desired that the American people and' President were shown their duty by the nations • which first threw themselves in Germany's path when she set out to dominate the world. . The President's words are welcome as doing justice to the nations which in the first stages of the war bore the full brunt of the formidable.attack developed by Germany and her vassals, but still more as correctly defining the relation in which Amorica stands to the Allies in.dealing with the problems'of peace. It is freely recognised in all Allied countries that at theclimax of the war the United States turned the scale and made complete and decisive victory certain. Neither is. there any attempt to deny that the American nation is in a position to exert an enormously powerful influence upon the settlement which is now being framed. There is not the: slightest : justification, however, for attempting, to elevate the United States to a' higher moral plane than the nations which incurred sacrifices l much heavier than her own in upholding liberty and justice. At one time there was or seemed to be a serious danger that the American delegation might be conceded 'dictatorial standing at the Peace Conference, or at all events that tho Allied "nations' might find themselves faced by the alternatives of unreservedly accepting American ideas in regard to conditions of settlement or of contenting themselves- with an insecure place, lacking American endorsement. At the time and in the circumstances in which, it was made the statement by President Wilson which has been quoted\is a noteworthy: addition to the evidence already in sight that this danger has receded. It takes its place with accumulating indications that President Wilson is less inclined as time goes onNto draw unreal distinctions between the moral outlook of his own. country and that of the. Allied nations, and that America is in a real sense partnered with the, Allies in the great enterprise of re-establishing peace and security in the world. Briefly as the President's latest utterance is. reported, its tone distinctly brightens the hope that the Peace Congress may be enabled, as he puts it, to organise against perils such' as Prance withstood. ' •

The actual nature and value to the Allies of American co-operation at the Peace Congress appear only when it is considered how enormously the international outlook of the "United States has broadened and developed since the war began, America has not stepped down from a pedestal to light and | lead the Allies and other nations into an age of humanity. What has actually happened is that the war has broken the American nationVout of clinging habits and traditions, of selfish isolation and limited- outlook. An essential part of the truth is brought out clearly in Peesident Wilson's remark that there undoubtedly was a time when the United States did not understand the war situation. It may be said with all, confidence that the attitude the United States has now taken up in reference to international affairs, _ and the responsibilities it has assumed or is prepared to assume, would have been unthinkable to its people not only when the war began, but when it was well advanced. As the New York Outlook, a Republican journal of high reputation, observed recently, the United States is entering upon a new era in its political life.

Out of an unreasonable and parrot-liko repetition of Washington's phrase, "entangling alliances" (tho "Outlook" adds), there lind grown up in this country up to tho outbreak of tho European 'war a foolisll tradition, that wo must have "nothing to db'with abroad." 'Ihe war has shown us clearly that our national life 16 bound up with tho national lives Of Europe, Asia,' Africa, and South America. Nothing could so signalise this new era and the realisation of this truth as tho visit of the President of 1li!.- United Stnte.l to an international ennfi'ie'iee f n ■■ E'i o'lpan country. For this reason it will do the neo'.ile of the United States good. It wilf also do tho peoplo of Europe good. It will ehow tbem as perhaps nothing else could that w> propose to work with them as neighbours in oae conKurantty,

In a later passage the Outlook remarked that the President had been criticised sometimes for trying to run things alone, /or attempting to do things_ "off his own bat," for being inclined to close his mind too much to the views of others. If there was any basis for this criticism, it further observed, nothing' could more effectively remove it than to have him sit shoulder . to shoulder and face to face with the liberal statesmen of Europe to hear directly from their lips their views and policies. As has been noted there is already some evidence that the hopes thus expressed are being realised. As a whole, the observations quoted admirably emphasise the fact that -commanding importance of American co-oporation in reestablishing and safeguarding peaoc is due above all' to the extent to which the war has broadened and enlarged the international outlook of the American nation, so enabling it to get into the closest touch with nations of ideals akin- to its own from whom it formerly held aloof.