The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-10-21
WOULD ASK EUROPEAN NATIONS
 TO RELIRQUISH POSSESSIONS
 HELD lN WESTERN HEMISPHERE

the clear vfsieA of a Washington or a Monroe, and realizing that immun- 1 ity from European quarrels requires freeing our waters as<weu as our land from their armed conflicts or the possibility thereof. put forth a joint demand for such immunity. Let us examine this reasoned request of theirs, and see if it will not disclose 1 the nature of the next step now nee essary& thoroughly to complete the eign complications urged by Wash ington and Monroe.
 s~The first point to consider is how such a request for neutralizing Pan- American waters might strike our friends In Europe, and what sort of a, l reply they would be Justified in mak- l ing, Would notee proper reply be | that. because sundry European pow CTS have long possessed territory in the western hemisphere either on the mainland or on islands ad jacent there | to, therefore they have the right to
 use such territory as military bases and to operate in the waters thereof !? And isn't it therefore the duty of every republic in this hemisphere TO realize that if such a reply be fair lone, then the principle of Pan-Amer- fcan peace will never be an assured l one until the territory of all the Americas is relieved from the sover- Eeignty of any European power There
 is an especial reason for urging a req 1 lization of this fundamental fact at
 this particular time. Monroe could not go that far--he only opposed fu- ture colonization.
 ssIt is very doubtful if ever again twill the United States be in a. better position to ask favors of Europe than 1 it Is at present, and it is vastly bet l ter to seek Pan-American peace as a favor than by force. And what is the ] position at present? Foreign loans and credits to European nations are l being fIoated here as never before, and those nations in their needs are turning to us as probably never again i will they have to turn Doesn't this state of affairs give us so peculiar an opportunity as to make of the oppor- tunity a. dutya duty owed by us to | all our sister republics and to the majestic merhories of F'ashfngton and
 Monroe? Is this not the psychological l moment when these tWde great states
 men would have felt obliged to em- pIoy7
 ssShould we not say therefore to our
 European friends, in our opinion a graceful recognition of all we, are do-. I ing and shall do for you--a graceful and noble recognition in whose appre- lriation all the Americans would join
 would be to release to the sovereign ] ty of the people themselves all colon Iial territory now owned by you In the western hemisphere. Canada can
 have her Independence whenever she. likes. but continues her connexions I with the British Empire by her own Ivo1itio1. Offer the inhabitants of the Guianas, of British Hunduras. and the other European colonies the same Iopportunity. Our South American brothers objected to the naval battle I off the Falkland Islands being fought islands had been returned to Argen tina to which they are allied by pro- l pinquity and origin, they could not i have been used as a naval base by a European power. and the battle of the Falkland Islands would have been fought elsewhere.
 Such a request from us to the
 European powers would be rich in 1 that true altruism which is the back bone of Pan-Americ canism as it is of the Monroe aDoctrine, because we I would be asking nothing for the
 United States. no territory, nothing l but everything for the liberty and as ] sured peace of the western henis- I phere Besides. the request would lcome from a. nation with clean hands. l the nation which freed Cuba and then I left her free, not once but twice. It l is not unfair for us to ask others to Tact as we have already acted our selves.
 eff for such a release of colonies l the European powers sh ould ask fi- l nanciaI npensation, there is no way l in which the resources of our great county could be better expended in 1 the sause Of free hemisphere than by paying such compensation, and in such payments participation by any of our sister republics would of l course be welcomed. The time is ripe I for such a request to free the soil of all the Americas, and none Knows it better than the European Govern lments :. We are being asked to list Il I curities, a privilege which every for I eign government controls, and for the concession of which they always re- quire compensation. Let anyone who doubts this statement study why Ar genffne bonds lost their quotation on T the Paris Stock Exchange 2, few years I ago, and how that quotation was re- I gained, or inquire into any one of
 many similar episodes abroad. Tn compensation for opening our ex- Ichanges to all these European securi-
 I ties, which means opening our poe kets to Europe, it is our duty to our fellow American republics and to our
 chiIdren's children 50 that they may I enjoy in peace their inherited lib- | erties-it is our duty, I say, to com
 from entanziing foreign allies propos- ed by Washington and Monroe, by l asking our European friends to nber-
 ate all territory in any of the Ameri-
 cas now held by them.
 '1n 1923 Monroe could only pro-
 I test against future colonization by Europeans. but today it happens that
 we are in a position to ask the re-
 lease of all Pan-American soil from present European colonies. Perhaps
 we of this generation may not live to
 sec this full measure of liberty come
 true, but surely, sooner or later it
 will be realized. Perhaps it will come sooner. than we may expect, for when
 ! -t 9 7-.x A. hope so widely approved by the South
 American press, that in all Pan
 | American f1isund derstandings there
 should be invoked joint action by Pan
 l American countries, little did we
 think that by now 1t would be an ac-
 1 eompIished fact, and an accepted