LEAGUE OF NATIONS

Taranaki Daily News, 25 March 1919, Page 5

LEAGUE OF NATIONS

AMERICA'S RESPONSIBILITY.

STATEMENT BY LORD R. CECIL.

London, March 18. Lord Robert Cecil, addressing the press delegation, added that scarcely a day passed in the peace negotiations without the League cropping up. If the League was an essential element in the pacification of the world the sooner it .sot together the better. He looked with great fear on any attempt to postpone its operation. He did not think tlie inclusion of the covenant would involve any delay in the peace preliminaries. A definite concrete covenant had already been produced. There were some ambiguities which could be remedied. He did not believe any prolonged consideration would be needed to remove all the ambiguities from the document of the joint peoples. The view that the covenant should form part of the peace preliminary was the view of the British Government. He believed the Monroe doctrine would be strengthened by the League. The war had left the United States in a position of enormous power, comparable to that of England after the Napoleonic wars. A great responsibility lay with America. She could not afford to say that she would refuse to interest herself in what went on in the world without being false to her responsibilities. There had been some criticism over Britain's representation on the League, but the Dominions desired representation in order properly to bring forward matters of importance to them rather than have them voiced by the British Government.— Aus. N.Z. Cable Assoc.