PACT RATIFIED

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 563, 16 January 1929, Page 9

PACT RATIFIED

Only One Member Opposes it When Vote is Taken in Senate

LONG AND BITTER. FIGHT (United P.A.—By Telegraph —r Copyright) (Australian and N.Z. Press Association) (United Service) Reed. 12.8 pan. WASHINGTON, Tuesday. FE United States Senate, by 85 votes to one, ratified the Kellogg Pact for the outlawry of war as an instrument of national policy. The ratification followed a long and bitter battle on the Senate floor.

Senator John Blaine, Republican, Wisconsin, was the sole opponent. The vote was taken after chairman W. E. Borah, of the Foreign Relations Committee, had read a report saying the treaty in no way impaired the right of self-defence of any nation. The report declared that the committee’s understanding of the Monroe Doctrine considered that it was part of the nation’s security and part of its system of self-defence. PRESIDENT’S VIEWS The vote was made possible by Senator Borah acceding to the interpretationists’ demand for a report by the Foreign Relations Committee, placing its construction upon the Pact. Senator Borah yielded after inserting that the report was not to be considered a reservation. President Coolidge regards the Kellogg Treaty as the most important subject that has been before the Senate during his administration. He believes the treaty will do more to stabilise conditions, express the sentiments of the world, and increase the probability of permanent peace than any factor within his knowledge. He regards it as an answer to any criticism that the United States has motives of aggression against any nation. An earlier message said that Senator Borah drew up a new compromise agreement, to bring about a vote on the treaty.

The new proposal would accede to the reservationists’ demands for a report from the Foreign Relations Committee, explaining the American interpretation of the pact, but it would also make it clear that the report was not in any way a reservation. In the meantime, on the Senate floor, before galleries crowded with women and representatives of peace organisations, Senator T. J. Walsh (Democrat) defended the treaty more strongly than most of its Republican adherents had done. Senator Walsh declared that the treaty was vastly more than a feeble gesture. He said: “It is a revolutionary pronouncement.”