The Dominion THURSDAY, MAY 12, 1921. THE AMERICAN AMBASSADOR

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 194, 12 May 1921, Page 4

The Dominion THURSDAY, MAY 12, 1921. THE AMERICAN AMBASSADOR

When it was announced early in March' that President Harding had naxiied Colonel George Harvey as American Ambassador to Great Britain, the news was received in some quarters with disappointment and foreboding, based on the fact that Colonel Harvey took a prominent part in opposing and defeating President Wilsons peace policy. Any unfavourable impression thus made ought to be removed by the new Ambassador s statement 'on his arrival in England. No one reading this spontaneous affirmation of AngloAmerican kinship and mutual interest can doubt that Colonel Harvey considers it his primary and most essential duty to carry on the great work done by his immediate predecessors, and by the able men who in recent times have represented Britain in the United States, in promoting a sound understanding between the two main divisions of the English-speaking race. There will assuredly be no lack of response in Britain or in other parts of the Empire to his message “not merely of good will, but of good cheer and good hope.” . British people everywhere will be touched and heartened by his declaration that there never was a time when America felt so keenly not the mere advisability, but the moral obligation of assisting “the Mother Count”v.” and acting together: they will welcome and endorse his contention that- it devolves upon Britain and America, “a. great Emnire and a friynt Rcpub,;c. shoulder to shoulder,” to save themselves and the world. .Colonel Harvey is a man of striking personality, who has boldly taken Jiis own line in the national politics of the United States and made light of party tics, but he. has always shown warm friendship for Great Britain. In an article published not long ago in the London Times he was described as “a vigorous American, somewhat of the Roosevelt type.”

Colonel Harvey (it wa- added) is a .gentleman of commanding appearance. He is not one to mince words, but he speaks out straight and direct. He litis always been a good friend to England, and we have bad no more loyal champion in the United Stales.

The new American Ambassador is a journalist by profession, and head of the publishing house of Harper and Brothers. At the age of 27 he was appointed managing editor of the New York Il'orW, and . eight years late:* became editor of the North American Review. The. bitter attacks he made in one of his publications, IJarve.y's IkWZ///, upon the administration and policies of President Wilson contributed -not a little to tho downfall of the Democratic Party in the election of last year. In the political field Colonel Harvey has had the altogether exceptional experience of taking an influential part in “bringing out" first a Democratic and then a Republican President. It was Colonel Harvey who induced Mr. Woodrow Wilson to enter public life as Governor of New Jersey, and it is said that he was also the first who. saw in the former Princeton President a future. President of the United States. Differences arose between the two men, however, before Mr. Wilson was elected to the Presidency. The ex-President is said to have slated openly that Colonel Harvey’s support was injurious. The basis of difference was, of course, political. Mr. Wilson relied for election upon the, support of Radical elements, and Colonel Harvey is classed as a Conservative. The. fact remains that as a, member of fihe Democratic Party Colonel Harvey had an import ant share in securing Mr. Wilson’s selection as the nominee of the party for the Presidency, and that more recently, as a, member of the Republican Party, he took an equally prominent part in promoting Mr. Harding’s candidature. A writer in the London Times gave Ihe following account a fyw weeks aco of Colonel Harvey’s later political act ivitics: — Last siimmcr again at Chicago, when the Renublican Convention had readied a deadlock. it was Colonel Harvey who brought about the compromise which led to the nomination of Mr. Harding as Remibliean candidate. By that time Colonel Harvey was Air, Wilson’s roost bitter critic, and bis polemics against flic President and his League of Nations policy were a powerful factor in the Republican victory. The "struggle,’’ he said, “lay between American nationalism and rainbow internationalism."

Now that the fury of the political contest in which Colonel Harvey took a conspicuous part has died away it seems clearer than ever that it originated rather in political animosities than in reasoned objections to the foreign, policy' propounded by the ex-President. Tn time even his most relentless critics and opponents may admit that Mr. Wilson gave a sound general lead in international affairs and erred chiefly' in political tactics. In spite of all the bitter feeling the contest occasioned, it is becoming more difficult as time goes on to perceive an.y vital or lasting ground of difference between those by whom it was waged. With the. champions of American ‘'nationalism” . and critics of “rainbow internationalism” in ’full control, the United States yet shows an increasing disposition to take an effective part in composing and readjusting the affairs of a disordered work]. The prevailing and we, may hope inevitable trend could hardly he emphasised better than in the fact that Colonel Harvey, entering Great Britain as a- Republican Ambassador, greets that country with as fervent expressions of friendship and sympathy based on kinship and common ideals, as definite assurances of co-operation in tbe> inter-

national field, as were employed by his Democratic predecessor, Mr. Davis, in his official farewells. In his first statement as Ambassador, Colonel Harvey has declared that Britain and America are under a moral obligation of acting together to save themselves and the world. Mr. Davis gave noble expression to the same belief in concluding one of the last speeches he delivered in England : —

There is an Anglo-American army (he said), an army of character and ideals and liberty, an army under whose banners the English-speaking people throughout the world can and do enrol themselves, and in that army our nations are destined, I believe, under God’s providence, to march side by side until history is no more. In the unanimity with which both Ambassadors have affirmed the principle of English-speaking unity, as in other directions, there is evidence that however they may differ in method and over details, the predominant elements of-,the two great political parties in the United States are of one mind where the really vital aspects of international policy are concerned. The statement Colonel Harvey has made in entering upon his mission is evidently of good augury as it bears on the prospects of an explicit understanding between _ Britain, America, and Japan, which will not only safeguard peace and permit a- limitation of armaments in the Pacific, but will facilitate comprehensive action in the interests of world peace.