The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. THURSDAY, MAY 9, 1929.

Hokitika Guardian, 9 May 1929, Page 4

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. THURSDAY, MAY 9, 1929.

ANGLO-AMERICAN 'RELATIONS. The concessions offered ,• by Aj[r Gibson on Denaii 01 tJie united states to the Disarmament Commission at t Geneva nave evoked general'’ satisfaction m Britain aiid Trance, but they have been received in a ratlier- different spirit in America. . MryfF. G. Britten, who is Chairman of the Naval ■Committee of the House of Representatives, has described Mr Gibson’S speech as “a complete surrender oi basic principles” and “another naval victory for British diplomacy”; and, judging from a recent pronouncement, y ex-President Coolidge, -in spite o." nything that may be said and done .it Geneva, v we may expect, says an o..'change, a vigorous renewal of the American demand not for limitation of armaments, hut for “the Freedom of the Seas.” At first sight there is •to British eyes something absurdly unreasonable and injust in the Amerian contention that all private property at sea, whether belligerent or neutral, shal be inviolable in war-time, n a recent article on “Anglo-Amen-an Relations,” Mr J. W. Davis, who .ns Ambassador to Britain in 1918-21, iocs his best to make his fellow-coun-rynien consider the question from the British point of view. He asks the Vmericnns what they would do, if they were at war with Mexico, and minii--1 ions and supplies were being shipped from Halifax to Cuban or Central • \merican ports.' Would not American cruisers make a point of seizing hese neutral ships and cargoes and bringing them into American ports for examination or confiscation? Mr Davis’ own conviction is that the united States would do precisely what Britain did in the revolutionary wars against France when Pitt vehemently condemned “these monstrous and un-heard-of principles of neutrality” which would have permitted France to receive unlimited supplies from other European countries, and thus to erelong the struggle. But though Air Davis, with many other intelligent Americans, is quite capable of gottin ,T the British point of view, he still maintains Unit the Freedom of the Seas is a goal toward which the Powers must strive. Is there nothing that can he offered to Britain to induce her to .surrender the right she has so' long claimed to ensure her safety by regulating and restricting the trade of neutrals in wartime? The answer suggested by Air Davis is one of great significance and importance in this controversy. He bolds that the Kellogg Pact imp'ics “that all the nations whose trenlv is broken or threatened so io lie. have a mandat'' to concert measures lo prevent the breach or In rep rocs it”; in simpler laii'Miage. that tlm Pni'ed States, bavin" accented the Kello"g Pact, “should take an active part in concerting measures for the prevention of war and in compelling the observance

o: those rules which are designed to mitigate its destructiveness.” This seems by far the most hopeful and iruitful suggestion that America has given to the world since the Great War closed, and there can be little doubt that if Britain were once cerain of the notice assistance of the United States in preventing or repressing any outbreak of war, she could safely admit the claim for the breed mi of the Seas as a right to .iliieh tliis important duly would lie ■ i.Tolatod. A.iJenea, of course, lias ice uwu designs f r building a navy 'Ujicrior in tiiat of any other nation, t might lie that there is so much money to spend, that the Navy forms n acceptable outlet. The United states is building ostensibly to assert lie freed in of the seas in any and til eventualities, yet it must b? known inti realised that Great Britain is not ikelv to qies’inn Ihe freedom of the eas e eeptlng in extremities similar to tin- Great War period. In any •ase America could alf -rd to trust Britain in this matter, if so minded, hut it is dear many of the leading \ morion n staV-men wish to mainta'ii l!m prestige of their country in all imimston -es, and so the issue of the freed mi of the seas is a very real isme and n -t likely to be so.tied lightly or readily.