ANGLO-AMERICAN RELATIONS

Hokitika Guardian, 19 September 1929, Page 8

ANGLO-AMERICAN RELATIONS

-Mr Ramsay MncDoriald has described the conversations which he has had with General Dawes, the United States Ambassador, on the subject of a navai, agreement as “cautious talks.” This is somewhat vague, but the announcement that is made that Air MacDonald will leave this month to visit America is strongly suggestive of a belief on his part that the conversations have been fruitful, and the statement, also cabled, that it is understood that the margin of the differences between Great Britain and the United States is so small as to present every prospect of a settlement affords dehnitc support to this view. The display of zeal on the part ol Mr MacDonald in the furtherance of the 1 plan for agreement between the two countries for a limitation of naval armaments may have been somewhat calculated to create uneasiness lest he should be too ready to make concessions to the Americans that might involve the acceptance of undue risks bj the British Empire. It can only be hoped in the meantime that there is no justification for any misgivings on this account.

The whole question of Anglo-Ameri-can relations is'one that demands the most careful consideration of the Governments concerned. The two nations should be united in their desire to live always at peace with one another and in their preparedness to take such sieps as would, ensure their relationship. A model of what they should aim at has been instanced the frontier between Canada and the United States, upon which, for its whole length of thousands of miles, there is not a single soldier, gun, fort or warship. Sir Austen Chamberlain pointed out last year that this wonderful belt of inviolable peace lay not between Canade and the united States, but between the United States and the Empire, of which Canada is part. The suggestion has been made that the successful experiment thus represented inigli be extended to all points at winch British and American interest's meet- at present. Tlie writer of an article -in the Fortnightly Review nuts forward the idea that Great Britain is in the fortunate position of being able to render America a signal service proving thereby at the same time in an irresistible manner the resolve of her Government never to enter into strife with .me people on the other side of the Atlantic. His suggestion is the neutralisation or demilitarisation, oi the British possesions in the Caribbean Sea-—islands clustered near the Panama Canal entrance on the Ai-' lantic side in which the Americans are said to see potential bases for an attack against the canal. What the Americans see sometimes, in connection with Great Britain, is certainly curious. But if there is any weight in the argument that the potentialities of the situation in tile Caribbean to exasperate the Americans the suggestion may be worth consideration that to this part of the world might successfully be applied the conditions that exist on the Canadian border. It is possible, of course, to appreciate the force of the suggestion that to have a good effect such a proposal of neutralisation or demilitarisation would have to come as a free offer for which no counter-value would be demanded in return. It may . well seem a useful idea that if it is in the power of Great - Britain to make a conciliatory' gesture of value to the end mat Anglo-American relations may be established on 'the permanent footing desired it is worth her Government’s ■while to give the matter its attention. —Otago Daily Times.