The Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, l916. HAD .MR. HUGHES BEEN PRESIDENT.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1637, 14 November 1916, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1916. HAD .MR. HUGHES BEEN PRESIDENT.

ACCORDING to Mr Roosevelt, who has been advocating (he election of Afr Hughes to the American Presidency, a Hughes Administration would not have recognised in American citizenship any dual alliance. It would have prepared itself with strength “so as to guarantee our own safety, and also to treat every foreign nation, in any given crisis, as its conduct in that crisis demands.” It would couple universal suffrage with “a system of universal obligatory military training in lime of peace, and in time of wat universal service in whatever capacity (lie man or woman shall he judged most (it to serve the commonwealth." It* would have dealt (irmly with .Mexican anarchy, and it would not have stood hesitant and afraid while every principle of international law and every right, of neutral and noneombalaut were violated on land and at sea by the German policy of terrorism. It. would have protested against the invasion of Belgium, against the murder of Miss Cavell and Captain Fryatt, against the torpedoing of merchant vessels and the dropping of bombs on unfortified cities and peaceful women and children. It; would have done whatever was necessary to emphasise (he condemnation of this unwarlike degradation of war. It would have invited the other neutral nations to join it iu such condemnation. “America could and should have put itself at the head of all (he neutral nation.-., by its example if not hy direct diplomatic agreements, in demanding that the war should he conducted in accordance with (he usage of civilised nations, that international law should he observed, that the rights of neutrals and no-eomhat-anls should he respected. If tins Hni'il had animated our Administration, there would probably have been no invasion of Belgium, no (cars of a like fate to terrorise other smaller nations, no torpedoing oi merchant vessels, no bombarding ol churches and hospitals, no tnas-'-aering ol women and children, no murder of Miss Cavell and Captain I*'/all, no attempted extermination of the Armenians.”