PEACE TREATIES.

Taranaki Daily News, 26 September 1921, Page 5

PEACE TREATIES.

AMERICA’S FINAL STEPISOLATION FROM EUROPEVOICE IN MANDATES. By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. Received Sept. 25, 5.5 p.m. Washington, Sept. 23. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has reported for the ratification of the German, Austrian and Hungarian peace treaties with two reservations. One prohibits American membership of the Reparations Commission or other international organisations without the consent of Congress, and the other making certain that the property rights of American citizens will not be jeopardised by the treaties. The first reservation is designed to meet Senator Borah’s objections, but the latter is still dissatisfied, and cast the only vote against reporting the treaties. It is understood the ratification of the treaties with the Central Powers will be followed immediately by negotiations and treaties with Britain, France, Italy and Japan, clearing up all questions which are left unsettled by America’s three new treaties. In each of these treaties there will be a written clause safeguarding to America every right and opportunity in the mandate territories which has been granted to members of the League of Nations. Senator Borah turned the tables on Senator Lodge, when President Harding’s treaty of peace with Germany was introduced in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Senator Borah, who formerly led the -irreconcilables, declared that since the treaty was baaed on the Versailles Pact it was open to some objections, and he demanded that Senator lodge’s reservations should be adopted, making it impossible for the State Department to name representatives on the Reparations Commission without the consent, of the Senate.

Senator Borah pointed out that the participation of the United States in the Reparations Commission would mean America’s participation in European affairs for at least 40 years. The United States would be obliged to keep troops in Germany. This treaty would take America through a back door into European entanglements. Senator Lodge immediately went to consult Mr. Hughes, Secretary of State.