THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1909. ENGLAND AND THE UNITED STATES.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9609, 1 October 1909, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1909. ENGLAND AND THE UNITED STATES.

Lord Claries Beresford has with sailor-like bluntness thrown out a suggestion that hag "often been more or less guardedly hinted at by leading British newspapers, notably the "Spectator." Speaking at a luncheon given in his honour in New York, the ex-Commander-in-Chief of the Channel Fleet is reported to have proclaimed that the outlook in Europe is dark, and that Great Britain's supremacy of the sea, which is a matter of life or death for her, is threatened. "Why should not '■. he English-speaking nations get together," he remarked, "and say that the-e shall not be war?" Although his question will doubtless be answered in a section of the American press by the presentation of specific reasons, it cannot be denied that Lord Charles Beresford has propounded a very important proposition, and oie which may quite possibly come up some day for discussion, not in the American press or in the clubs of Washington or New York, but in Congress itself. Declarations by ex-lPresident Roosevelt and recent recommendations to the Washington Government' by the Secretary for the Navy seam to indicate that the United States will certainly build up in the near future a much more powerful navy than that which exists at present. Lord Charles Beresfcrd is probably quite right in supposing that a combination including the American Navy, the British Navy, and the naval resources of tlie British Dominions oversea—or in his own words, the navies of "the English-speaking nations" —would be sufficient to enforce the' maintenance of general peace. And if the general peace can be ensured by any means whatever, it is well worth considering what are the prospects of such an arrangement being brought into effect. That there are difficulties, and grave difficulties, in the way is incontestable. But there is po reason as yet to suppose that those difficulties must necessarily prove insuperable. Meanwhile it will be admitted that the project of an Anglo-American alliance is one which may be gravely injured, if not destroyed altogether by tactless and unskilful, handling. As to the difficulties in the way of an AngloAmerican alliance, it is to be noted in the first place that under the Amarican Constitution the President can only enter into a treaty, agreement. or alliance with a foreign Power when the proposed engagement has been assented to by the Senate. But even the sanction of the Senate will nut be sufficient if under the terms of the alliance the United States is to be involved in war, because the House of Representatives

suited and must give its assent before the naval and military forces can be requisitioned for service. The President of the United States cannot make war except after a formal declaration by Congress, emDowering him to do s>. Whether Congress would or Jwould not declare in favour of siding with the United Kingdom against Germany, which is at present the only Power that threatens her sea supremacy, is, and must remain, a matter of opinion. In the meantime, however, it is well to bear in mind that the good will of the United States is quite as earnestly desired by Ger many as by England, and that the German Government, through • its Ambassador at Washington, Baron Sternburg, as well as through the plain overtures of thi Kaiser to ex-President Roosevelt, has made i} plain that Germany desires to be the very good friend of the United States. Many of the States which send representatives to the Senate have populations containing a heavy percentage of voters of German nationality, as wtll as heavy percentages of other elements, some of which &re openly hostile to Great Britain, while others are at the least uninterested. Hence it must be recognised that opinion in Congress would be greatly divided if the question of taking sides should ever come to an issue. The American people must first feel that their national interests are bound up with the supremacy of the ideals for which Great Britain stands. If they can be assured of the fact their assist-, ance in maintaining the general peace by siding with Englan 1 in her time of trial may be counte.l jpon. But hardly otherwise.

as we 11 as the Senate must be con-