The Dominion. MONDAY, AUGUST 25, 1919. THE WORLD WAITING FOR AMERICA

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 282, 25 August 1919, Page 4

The Dominion. MONDAY, AUGUST 25, 1919. THE WORLD WAITING FOR AMERICA

All that has yetbeen reported of its recent proceedings taaves tho United States Senate distinctly open to the charge that it is wasting time in what it is pleased to call the consideration of the Peace Treaty,• and so extending conditions that in tho interests of the whole world cannot too soon be ended. In some aspects the campaign against the Treaty by a section of the Senators has been skilfully planned and directed, but as a whole it betrays the inspiration of motives very far removed from the desire to promote a just peace. In deciding, for instance, to receive deputations from the Egyptian, Irish, Greok, and Central Eu : ropean peoples before acting on the Peace Treaty, tho Foreign Relations Committee of the Senate 4s plainly lending itself to partisan influences emanating mainly from the Irish Home Rule element in American politics. To go no further into the matter, no responsible body of opinion in the United States would contemplate, much Ifiss approve, interference in the domestic problems of the British Empire—problems which the British people ; are honestly doing their best to solve on just and democratic lines. It is most unlikely that the Senate will follow the lead of its Foreign Relations Committee in this matter. The incident is significant chiefly as showing how far the Republicans, who are in a majority in the Senate, and. so control the Foreign Relations Committee, have been led astray by the malcontents whole ruling motives are found in personal hostility to President Wilson and in hatred of Great Britain. A striking example of irrational hostility to the Treaty is afforded in the speech in which Senator Thom.as attacked the Labour Convention. He asserted that under this document uniform labour conditions would be attained at the cost of levelling down the wages of American labourers. As a fact, the Labour Convention recognises in clear terms that uniform labour conditions are unattainable. Its essential purpose is to stimulate the improvement of labour conditions in backward countries, and to suggest that any suecess in this direction would entail retrogression in more advanced countries is arrant nonsense. ' No unprejudiced observer needs to be told that the American nation is ill-represented in a .campaign in which confessed or ill-conccaled antagonism to President Wilson, and frothy denunciations of Great Britain, . are allowed so largely to overshadow the central issues at stake. While Senators are fulminating the world is kept waiting for the conditions in which 'peace would be consolidated'and free play given to the forces of reconstruction. As yet of the great Allied Powers Britain and "France have ratified the Treaty of Versailles, and ratification by another of these powers is required to five Treaty -formal sanction. nierica in any case ha-s a vital part to play in the immediate settlement, and in what is to follow.' Mr. Lloyd George stated last week that the delay in concluding peace with Austria, Bulgaria, and Turkey, was due to the fact that the Allies were waiting to know, whether America was prepared to take a share in guaranteeing protection to the peoples who, if unprotected, would be subject to terrorism, plunder, and murder. No amount of windy talk can obscure the plain issue set before the United States and the Senate, which is the ultimate treaty-Waking authority in that country. America either is or is not prepared to do its part in reestablishing and maintaining worldpeace. The refusal of 'the Senate to ratify the Treaty of Versailles would entail 'evil consequences for the world in comparison with which any detail shortcomings now visible in that document are insignificant. It is to be emphasised that where it is not plainly irrelevant and inspired by sectional animosities and antagonisms, Senatorial criticism of the Treaty has fastened largely upon outlying details. That in the main it provides the conditions of a just settlement is not disputed bv any considerable body of opinion in the Senate; it is affirmed bv' a great majority of the American people. Moreover, of those who oppose the inclusion of the League of Nations Covenant in the Treaty many admit that such an international organisation is necessary. To this it must be added that for practical purposes the Senate has no other choice than to accept or reject the Treaty in all essential features as it stands. There is some limited scope for reservation, but the elimination of any clause would bo couivalent t-o the rejection of the Treaty as a whole. Such a course, if it were upheld, would be likely to withdraw America from the ranks of the nations prepared to uphold the peace impose-:! on Germany. It has been pointed out by the New York Outlook, that j

If, as is highly improbable, we (the United States) could secure another conference of Hie Powers for the purpose of agreeing upon a revised Treaty, ive should be represented in that conference by the President whose action at the previous conference wo iuul disavowed, unless tho new conference was not convened until Jlnreh i, 1921, in which case the world would be left in its chaotic condition for nearly two years' longer, a peril not to be lightly hazarded. The facts just cited deserve attention because they expose as an insincere pretence the contention of some of its members that it is open to the Senate to materially amend the Treaty without endangering or unduly delaying peace. It is only by "ratifying the Treaty substantially as it stands that America .can demonstrate her readiness to cooperate in upholding' peace in the world. It is equally to the point that by rejecting the Treaty (or amending it in a way that would bo equivalent to rejection) the Senate would destroy the only hopeful means of correcting or amending those features of the settlement which admittedly are open to criticism. This is best understood with reference to a specific case. The Shantung settlement, for instance, is admittedly out of keeping with the

rest of the Treaty, and at a direct view leaves ranch to be desired from the standpoint of justice and fair dealing. The arrangement under which German rights in the Shantung Peninsula were transferred to Japan invites condemnation, and objections to this course are not fully met by the latter country's undertaking to evacuate Shantung, reserving only economic rights over the railways and a settlement of limited area at Tsingtao. ].t is maintained by native and foreign defenders of Chinese interests that under this arrangement Japan is given a foothold which might enable her not only to establish economic domination rff the whole of North China, but So gain strategic control of that vast territory. It is likely, however; that such a resolution as the Foreign Relations Committee of the Senate has now passed "favouring the amendment of the Peace Treaty by ordering the return of Shantung to China immediately," runs a long way wide jof practical possibilities. In view of the disorganised state of China it is probable that international control of the Shautung railways was the only alternative to such concessions to Japan as that country has obtained. The actual position seems to be that t.'s Peace Confercncc,, whilo nominally conceding Japanese demands, went a long way towards establishing the form of international rontrol from which China has most to hope, and this in application not merely to Shantung, but to the whole scope of foreign enterprise in China. Under the financial consortium which is now planned, foreign banks making loans to China will do so out of a common pool, and without guarantee by their own Governments. Thus China, if the arrangement is carried out, will obtain loans to develop her resources without. risking any further invasion of her sovereignty, and without giving any particular Power an opportunity of establishing a position of predominant influence. The most important feature of the proposal is 'that existing as well as future loan interests in China should be pooled in this way, and under the conditions stated. Such a plan opens better prospects of improving China's position and of enabling her to rocover what ryrhts she has lost, and resist any further invasion of 'her rights, than any hard and fast settlement which could be. prescribed to-day. Whether the plan is successfully carried into effect or not must depend upon success or failure in establishing; the League of Nations, and it is a decidedly significant fact that while discussion in the .Americaii Senate.is taking the lino reported, China herself, on the word of one of her principal dolcgates to the Conference (Dr. Wang), looks for justice from the League of Nations. At whatever point it is examined, the Senate campaign aarainst the Treaty seems to lack anything in_ the shape of substantial justification, and to injure rather than help those it is professedly intended to serve. It is so much the more likdy that the campaign will collapse in face of the need, only less Icccnly felt in America than in other countries, of settled conditions of peace.