The Grey River Argus WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1948. WIDENING OF CO-OPERATION WITH U.S.A.

Grey River Argus, 17 November 1948, Page 4

The Grey River Argus WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1948. WIDENING OF CO-OPERATION WITH U.S.A.

\\7ITII the prevalent uncertainty of peace in Europe, the leeway in recovery from the Avar, and the unrest in Asia, international relations are as much as ever in the melting pot. Notable causes have been the extinction of some Powers, 4 such as Germany and Japan, but no less important are the loss of influence by other Powers, coupled with great gains in influence by the two greatest of the Powers to-day. the United States and the Soviet Union. The French crisis is not only economic, but ethical and political, and it is possible that the country may go to pieces and lose finally any remnant of the power which for long centuries it has exerted in the world. This prospect is made more real by the policy of Moscow to promote such a split. It is even claimed by writers who are familiar from experience with the Marxian line that the “Iron Curtain” is less a danger than it is an obstacle to a major European Avar, because the Soviet’s first concern is to keep out from its realm Western, democratic influences, and its second to foster civil Avar in those foreign countries which it designs ultimately to dominate. The Western Union plan of defence credited to Lord Montgomery, however, bases such a defence upon the Rhine, implying the possibility of an advance beyond the “Curtain”, rather than the latter being in its turn a defensive line no less than the Rhine. As Mr Bevin has repeatedly said, Britain’s influence in the military or political sense has since the Avar Avaned because of the lack of its former economic backing. While Dominion economies have all grown, Britian’s has relatively contracted, and politically a new relationship has arisen, not only from India’s attainment of autonomy, but from the change from an Empire to a Commonwealth. It is uncertain how far South Africa adheres, and Eire is disposed to concrete her conception of independence in a manner rendering also uncertain her relation to the Commonwealth. What may be reasonably inferred, from the conference yesterday opened at Baris on Eire’s future position, is that the CommonAvealth now more than ever is an economic proposition. In addition it is a proposition more than ever to.be taken in relation to I the United States, which is fundamentally no less an economic rei lation. That conviction obviously inspires the proposal for an economic union, of Britain, the United States, Canada, Eire, Australia and New Zealand, which has just been put before the Americans by an Eire Minister, Mr James Dillon, who advances the proposition as being the possible alternative to another world Avar. The idea is the United States, coupled of course with the Dominions, shall guarantee Britain against an economic collapse, which would be as detrimental to Eire-itself as to any other of the countries in question. Essentially it means the removal of all barriers to the free passage of men, money and goods through all of those countries for a period of one or two decades. It would doubtless augment Britain’s market extensively, but also would remove barriers to the marketing of Dominion produce and manufactures as well as those of the United States. The military as- , peet of the idea is that Britain with the backing of the United States strength, would become an invulnerable basis for the defence of Europe, as against the risk of Russian imperialism. Mr Dillon has also an eye to America’s great gold monopoly, suggesting a new currency, jointly of dollars and sterling, with nbt only the said gold backing, but also the backing of the whole assets of all parties to the arrangement. Whether or not some such conception might be a herald of things to come, it at least illustrates the ideas which have taken the form of Western Union and North'Atlantic pacts, as also the earlier idea of the Icasc-lend policy, and in a degree the aims of'the Geneva and Havana trade conventions. It incidentally illustrates also the design of Eire to maintain as close a relation with the Commonwealth as economic and other co-operation would allow. Coming from a quarter Avhich Coming from a quarter which aims hoav to realise, the goal of independence, it may be regarded as unbiassed. While it would be rash to anticipate any immediate endorsement, this notion of yet wider and more complete co-

I operation may actually inspire \ policy in the exacting period lying ’ ahead. It certainly does appear , to be a logical inference from ; post-war development. 1