AMERICA'S ATTITUDE

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 60, 2 November 1931, Page 2

AMERICA'S ATTITUDE

If the agreement that has been arranged between President Hoover of the United States and the Prime Minister of Franee is ratified, it will surely be a staggering surprise to the world. Mr. Hoover has proved to be singularly pliant and ac~ commodating, his chief concern, seemingly, being that France should not cast covetous eyes on the enormous gold reserves of his country. Mr. Hoover says, in effeet, "Yes, I will agree to the majority of the proposals you, bring, but only provided you do not nibble at our gold reserve, except by a prior agreement between our respective central banks" \A more pitiable exhibition of inept statesmanship it would be hard to imagine. Avarice is a, vice that needs to be guarded against as much in a nation as in an individual. As Waldo Emerson has well said: "Without the rich heart, wealth is an ngly beggar." President Hoover sees in America's vast accretions of gold a symbol of national greatness and power- — an instrument to enable America to become the dominant nation of the world. At least, that is the inf erence to be drawn from his pathetic. solicitude for inviolability of America's gold vaults. Both America and France pretend to deplore the depression, but neither is prepared to make any sacrifice to relieve it. There is a strong likelibood, however, that the agreement will be wrecked in the stormy atmosphere of the Senate. Many presidents have been rebuifed and humiliated by the veto of the Senate, and President Hoover aiready has had good reason to assume that his wishes are by no means sacroscant among the members of that august body. The Senate, on the other hand, can only abrogate a treaty; it cannot make one. hTevertheless, feeling would need to be running feverishly high» before the wishes of the chief executive could be deliberately frustrated. The consensus of opinion among Americans appears to be that the taxpayers will have to make any concessions that might be made regarding war debts. This contention is being as ruthlessly exploited in America, as Free Trade fallacies are in the Homeland. Another suprise in connection with the agreement is that a latent community of interest .and sentiment does not appear to exist between the United States and Britain. Many people thought it did; but President Hoover's full surrender to France mnst now tend to make them dubious about its existence. America is going the right way about her foreign policy to place an Atlantic of hate and diseord between her and other nations — France, Britain's artful and intriguing neighbour, a possible exception.