AMERICA AND THE WAR.

Hokitika Guardian, 7 April 1923, Page 3

AMERICA AND THE WAR.

MIGHT HAVE FOI'OTIT ENGLAND. ••fit Paris f met my friend. Colonel E. M. House, at a dinner parly, where several diplomatists were preselil . anil, when grouped together idler dinner, the ever-recurring discussion c,i the win. its causes, conduct and enn-scqi'.ent-es, took place, writes Mi James I). Phelan, former Salt Franeisco Senator, who has jimi published a hook ithc.nl his world tour. "There was nothing confidential about it. Colonel House, having held a position which makes him peculiarly qualified to speak, said that, at one time, it was much more likely that America would have been at war with England than with Germany; and had not Germany blundered so grievously, by the invasion oi Belgium and by the prosecution of torpedo wartare. the destruction of American ships and American lives, the had faith of her promises am! the insulting character of her communications, site would have won a victory, because, noi only would Aino'iea not have gone to war on behalf „f the Allies, hut she would have waged war against England for the violation of international law and the invasion of her neutral commerce—blockading, seizing, and searching vessels. denying coaling iacihtics. divet*ing cargoes, black-listing merchants and, in every possible wax. calling down the wrath of the American people, uex'gr too Irmndly to ambitions and aggressions. Conditions had become intolerable, when the ineptitude of German diplomacy and the ruthlcssness of German warfare on the high seas, turned the scale of sentiment, and made it necessary for America to strike.”