The Dominion THURSDAY, AUGUST 4, 1921. THE AMERICAN VIEWPOINT

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 266, 4 August 1921, Page 4

The Dominion THURSDAY, AUGUST 4, 1921. THE AMERICAN VIEWPOINT

The prospective renewal of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance gave rise recently to an animated and widcsnrea<l discussion in the United States. In newspaper articles, the question was considered from so many angles that in sum these articles presumably supply a representative expression of American national opinion on the issues raised —an expression which is of additional interest now that the renewal of the Anglo-Japanese Treaty is, for the time at least, merged in the larger question of promoting such an international understanding in the Pacific as will permit a general limitation of naval armaments. American newspaper pronouncements on the whole confirm an opinion that the advantages of an agreement of this kind are not as widely realised in the United States as they are in most parts of the British Empire, but on an average the note struck is one of confidence in the perpetuation of Anglo-American friendshiip. Some leading, journals emphasise the desirability of intelligent co-operation between the Eng-lish-speaking nations, and the papers of the Hearst group.appear to stand practically alone in pretending to believe that the AngloJapanese Alliance constitutes a menace to the United States. American papers of various shades of opinion agree in deriding tho assertion by some organs of the yellow Press that as it bears on Pacific affairs the Anglo-Japanese pact “is for offence, both by Japan and Great Britain.” Commenting on such statements, the Now York Evening Mail declared that only a "disordered imagination deliberately refusing to recognise the facts of the situation can pretend there is the least chanoe of an AngloJapanese armed combination against this country.” The. Now York Evening Post, with, equal emphasis, describes the same idea as a “monstrous absurdity.” Some of the foremost American papers are particularly impressed and even surprised by tho explicit declarations of responsible statesmen both in tiro Mother Country and in the Dominions that they would support the renewal of the Treaty only in terms acceptable to the United States. That these declarations have served a useful purpose in educating public opinion in Americ-«teis indicated

in observations like those of the New York Times:— These expressions come, it will be noted, from those very British Dominions which our excited opponents of the League of Nations assured us would always cast their votes and their influence against the United States. That artificial fear is now happily overpast. Wo are able at last to mad calmly of the offers of Great Britain and her colonies to work together with America to secure the peace of the world. Many even of the American newspapers which endorse their •Government’s refusal to recognise the League of Nations as it is at present constituted agree in regarding the British desire to study and conciliate American opinion as the most significant fact in connection with the proposed renewal of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance. _ A noteworthy contribution to the chorus of comment inspired in America bv the anticipated renewal of the Alliance was made by tho Chicago Tribune, a journal not by any means ov*r friendly to British interests. • Remarking that the British attitude on this question was only natural, “since all the English-speaking commonwealths have a common interest in tho peace of the Pacific and in the protection of their nations from the grave evils of race conflict,” it added : —

But while British consideration of our opinion seems to us founded on enlightened self-interest, as all State policy should be, we have none tho less reason to appreciate and welcome it. Indeed, American opinion should take note of this fact as representative of & still larger fact —namely, that it is to the advantage of both the American people and the British that their international policies shall be intelligently co-operative and mutually supporting wherever possible. Doubtless we have competitive interests, and no illusions as to the will of our respective peoples to pursue those interests with the shrewdness and energy which mark both nations. But underlying these competitions are common interests of a more vital moment to the lasting welfare of both peoples, end our common language, morale, and habit of thought should make it possible for us to form out larger policies so as to give mutual support to such underlying interests.

Both Britain and America, tho Tribune goes on to remark, are commercial nations whoso basic concern is thb maintenance of world peace. Both are vitally concerned in safeguarding the structure of international credit, and in the maintenance within reasonable limits of open world markets and secure world thoroughfares. “And because of the immense transactions growing out of tho world war, each is vitally interested in the economic and financial stability of the other.” This effective statement of weighty considerations is interestingly supplemented by tho semi-official Washington Tost in the observation that the best-informed American opinion has been constantly in sympathy with the best elements of the British Empire and that: —

It is the calmness of American-British relations that assures perpetual friendship. The lack of ecstasy and the absence of deep-rooted racial or other aversions speak for a continuance of the steady companionship of the two peoples. They can understand each other in trifles without danger; and when the time of stress comes, they can understand each other exactly, and can join hands to the bitter end, as the late war just witnessed.

As they bear upon the prospects of the international conference shortly to meet at Washington, these expressions of American opinion are on. the whole decidedly encouraging. ■With inconsiderable exceptions they disclose a rational refusal to believe that Anglo-Japanese friendship hblds anv. threat to the United States, and this, with the emphasis laid by some of tho newspapers upon the practical advantages of co-oneration between the Englishspeaking nations. distinctly brightens tble hope that tho Washington conference may ba able to lay the foundations of an international agreement which both Britain and Japan would be well content to accept in place of their present Alliance.