Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1941. JOINT ACTION AFTER THE WAR.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 October 1941, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1941. JOINT ACTION AFTER THE WAR.

ALTHOUGH they do not go in principle beyond the aims and aspirations expressed in the Atlantic Charter, but are, on the contrary entirely in accordance with that historic document, observations made by the American Secretary to the Navy, Colonel Frank Knox, in an address the other day to the American Bar Association, deserve attention as’ concrete proposals for the establishment, and safeguarding of peace when the war has been won. Britain and the United States, Colonel Knox said, should join forces for al. least a hundred years to produce an effective system of international law after the war. Having observed that sometime and somewhere an international order may emerge which need not rely on force, Colonel Knox added that in the interim a peace-loving force must intervene to save the world from destruction. The foundations of such a force must, be control of the seas by Britain and America. In order to set up conditions that would prevent the rise of new Hitlers, America must join her power to Britain's to stop new aggressions at the beginning. It, must be hoped that Colonel Knox is right in believing that “we shall come to this by the sheer logic of events.” The need, however, of preparing in good lime for the safeguarding of peace when it has been established is second only, if it is second at all, to the need of winning the war. A time may well come when the knowledge that adequate force will be available to re-establish and enforce international law will do a good deal to hasten the victory of the free nations and the downfall of those who are seeking to enslave and degrade the world. The hope is raised, notably in the recent proceedings of the inter--Allied Conference, that when victory has been won. nations both great and small will band together in an effective association to uphold a reign of law. There certainly should be no thought of setting up the project of an Anglo-American alliance in opposition to that of an association and organisation of all nations desiring to uphold peace and law. If any such association of nations is to succeed, however, it is essential that the British Commonwealth and the United States should put their full weight into the scale and give in good time, il need be, the lead that even Britain gave belatedly in challenging Nazi aggression. It is nowhere more necessary than in tl|,e United States that thought and public attention should be concentrated on the problems here involved. Store than any other single factor, the refusal of the United States Io join the League of Nations accounted for the tragic failure to make the League an effective instrument and agency of collective security. The survival ol civilisation may depend on whether that terrible mistake of some two decades ago is or is not to be repeated. At present the people of flu* United States seem to be awakening more and more to the fact that their own late and future are at stake in this war, but the danger appears that their appreciation of international realities may fade when totalitarian gangsterdom has been overthrown and Ihe immediate emergency has passed. There is tlje more need to bear that danger in mind and establish what safeguards are possible against it since, under the American Constitution, any Government is liable to be hampered and limited severely in international policy. As an American writer (Mr Richard A. Newhall) observed recently, in a letter to the “Christian Science Monitor” Two things stand in the way of American efficiency in world politics. They are both in the Senate. One is the Senate rule permitting unlimited debate. The other is the constitutional provision making the Senate alone the ratifying authority, and that by a two-thirds majority. This has given a Senate minority the power to wreck any major policy. Until this is changed our Government is- seriously hampered in world politics and our ability to exercise the influence in world affairs which accords with our interests and powers is considerably weakened. We are a strong power for preventing constructive action, but we are prevented by our own system from giving a lead to the rest of the world.

By way of.remedy I'or this, state of affairs, Mr Newhall suggested an amendment of the Constitution to provide that'the ratification of treaties negotiated by the President shall be by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress, without amendment or reservation. Good as the suggestion no doubt is, Hie procedure of amending the Constitution of the United States is liable lb be extremely slow. For a time, at least, co-operation by the United Slates with Britain and other nations after the war is likely to depend upon the extent to which the American people can be induced forgive an awakened and alert attention to international realities which will overwhelm, if need be, the shortsighted parochialism of a Senate minority.