AMERICAN POLICY

Hokitika Guardian, 24 April 1933, Page 8

AMERICAN POLICY

FRIENDSHIP WITH BRITAIN

WORK OF RECONSTRUCTION

LONDON, March 30,

Mr Andrew W. Mellon, whoso term of office as United states Ambassador ,n London ended with the coming into office of Mr Roosevelt, was entertained ly the Pilgrims this week. In ickoowledging the toast of his health, Mr Me;lon said that whatever admiu-

stration might be in power at Washington, the cornerstone of America’s

orcign policy would continue to be friendship and close co-operation with the British people. “England,” he declared, “is for many of us still an enchanted country —a country which hau proved anew that even in these difficult and changing times her ancient greatness has not departed from her and that she is still ‘a bulwark for the cause of

.moil.’ ” The financial structure of the United 'tates, Mr Mellon continued, had itood the strain of the greatest maladjustment in history remarkably well. The burden of debt was very heavy and had cut deeply into the country’s purchasing power, but debt had a way of liquidating itself in time. TIME AND PATIENCE.

“The real problem in America,” went on Mr Mellon, “is one of adjustment to the shifts in economic power which the world war brought about. Before 1914 the United States was a debtor nation, sending annually large sums to Europe in payment of her obligations here. Four years- later the situation had been reversed with « completeness and a rapidity such as the world had never witnessed before. “Such a change was bound to set up a maladjustment both in America and in Europe. It will take time, I fear, and patience and more than one conference, perhaps, to adjust ourselves to this and other changes which the war has left in its wake. We are, however, making progress. What the next twelve months hold for us I do not know, but I have faith to believe that some solution, for our most pressing problems can and will be found. “New men will soon be at the helm, ready and capable of grappling with the problems. They are men schooled in the best American tradition, and they will be fully as zealous as their predecessors not only in upholding tlie best interests of the United States, but in trying to make that interest coincide with the larger welfare of the world.

SHARE OF COMMON SENSE

“The British amU American people share many things. :n common- not the least important cf which is common sense. Our common language, about which we hear so much, is • in some respects-mor^-of a hindrance than a licl’i. Too often it served as a channel of communication: for things that were better left, unsaid, with results that make us believe with St. Paul that evil communication corrupt, good manners.’ “Differences between us there will always be, and things will he said on both sides of the Atlantic* that will make the judicious grieve. While these t’-ings inav affect a country’s popularity, which is after all, a thing of the moment and in the lives of nation not "important, they do not have the power to destroy friendship between nations, especially when it is based, as in the case'of England and America, on mutual respect and a general feeling of moving in the same direction in. history and along parallel linos that need never collide.”