The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE. TUESDAY, DEC. 28, 1920. COCKROACH OR BRONTOSAUR.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XII, Issue 3662, 28 December 1920, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE.

TUESDAY, DEC. 28, 1920. COCKROACH OR BRONTOSAUR.

With which ia Incorporated "The Taihape Post and Waimarino News ”

There is justification for assuming that the American sentiment was never averse to the establishment of a League of Nations. The Republican party in the Legislature and in State politics were certainly opposed to a League of Nations according to the gospel according to Wilson, probably because they realised that by showing some opposition to a means for settling international differences speedily, and with the utmost degree of Inality and definiteness, they would draw into the party support that stream of discontents, malcontents and those of the varying degrees of anarchy, to help ■ swell the vote necessary for ousting Democratic Woodrow Wilson and enthroning Republican Senator Harding in the presidential chair at White House. Hairdingfs contention is that such a League of Nations would, in some cases, result in producing the opposi ite of what it aimed at; “it would impair the principles of independence and liberty by which America has hitherto been guided.” Does the contention of Senator Harding ring true? Is there such a variation in the principles of independence and liberty of Americans as to render them opposed to all other national principles of independence and liberty ?We think not only as a matter of degree.. So long as Americans think they will be permitted to tinker with the League Covenant they will stand out for that which gives independence and liberty to Americans and denies it to all others. The past history and experience of any people is wonderfully helpful iu approximately arriving at what they will do in the future, and strive for in the present. A cablegram received on Friday from New York conveys the doubtful intelligence that President Harding, after having discussed the subject in conference with those Senators who have made themselves notorious by their determination to keep the world in a state ’ of war years longer than was necessary, “■favours the formation of an Association of Nations, the basis of which would be a Court to deal wfth, judiciary questions.’’ It will probably; eventuate that the Republican President will seek to form an international trust, in which America will scheme to possess the controlling vote. The base of Ms Association of Nations is a Judiciary Court for determirig judiciary questions only, for he states that other questions are to he simply matters of national conferences: To determine just what America does -want from what its presi-dent-elect states is just about as clear as mud. It is not difficult to understand that whether a body is called an Association or a League it will require a judiciary to pass judgment upon cases brought before it as the result of infringement of some code of offences; but w r hat are the other questions that are to bo considered by conferences of Nations? President Harding’s proposals are evidently yet in course of incubation, and his obviously tensile remarks, which may ultimately be stretched in any direction as events warrant or dictate, are merely a mark time or a stonewall of the whole League project. It. seem,s thoiPrebidienfl of, the;Kind, of trusts, combines and syndicates is not likely to commit his country to

any course that may imperil the absolutism of American policy. The super-government proposal is a nightmare to Americans; they are willing I that their brother nations should | bleed somewhat for world benefit, j but Americans will not let out one I drop. There seems little chance of i escape from the idea that it rvas the unmistakable purpose of the American Senate not to permit America's 'entrance into European affairs; and yet it is e'qually unmistakable that America is feverishly arming for something more than Home defence purposes. The evidence fo7 and against Americanj’s eventually falling Into line with the League is about equal; meanwhile the President' of all the Americas (resembles somewhat the boy who leaned up against the school fence, rubbing his eyes, and whining “I shan’t play. Feeding for his co-continental, or trimming for a bigger bite of the continental cake, or maybe a better chance in seeing the next big fight, Brazil has thrown up the League game, and now sits on the fence beside disgruntled Uncle Sam. The nations of the world are entitled to ask whether America wants a cessation of strife that is I not on American soil, and the American President- elect says he favours a Judiciary Court. What for? To pass judgment on matters which have been coded by another judiciary, or merely to decide disputes between quarrelsome whose peoples would take no notice whatever of the gratuitous judgment passed. The American attitude towards 1 the League of Nations is yet altogether too embryonic to decide whether the I germ will produce a cockroach or a I brontosaur.