The Washington herald., 1921-10-02

British policy as II has manifested itself ever since
the Paris conference and indeed at that gathering is
conditioned upon the crisis in British domestic life
which is in reality condition rather than crisis.
Lay aside all the genuinely friendly and sincere
feelings of many thousands of Englishmen far
America is concerned and underneath the British policy
of apprOachment with the United States lies the frank
recognition that any real rivalry and clash between
America and Britain whatever its effect upon would
spell nothing short of final ruin for the British Islands
In association with il still possible for the British
to restore their broken fortunes given their supreme
skill experience given the qualities which have made
the nation what 1t has been for centuries.
IN alliance with US (and that was the Paris dream
i still surviving in many British minds), il would
have been possible by the sheer strength of the
bination to impose peace upon the world and compel
return to business not only eventually but with
comparative promptitude If the British are bitter at
since Paris and many Of them unmistak-
ably it is because they feel that much Of their
present suffering is due, to a postponement of the
return to settled conditions which followed refusal
to act with them or mix in the affairs Of Europe If,
there is disorder all Europe today which ex-
presses itself for the Engishman in terms of unem7
ploynent it is in his mind due in no small degree to
our withdrawal from the councils of the world and in
fact our reputation of Anglo-American combina-
ton to pestore world order detail in restoring
world trade
" If Englishnien today in very large numbers con-
tnue to advocate and even to expect Anglo-Amer-
can association Is because at bottom this association
gives the surest and shortest not the only promise
Of return of the world to those old conditions of
life which were and essential to the continued
maintenance upon English soil of millions of men aAd
women who now live there, but whose existence, has
been placed in immediate jeopardy. If British states
men are looking to the Forthcoming conference at
Washington with hope that what missed on the
banks of the Seine may be achieved on those of the
Potomac is because day by day the menace of their
own condition is becoming more and more evident.
stupendous revolution has taken place in the
relation between Britain and her white colonies be-
come domnions in title and nations in fact No
Enghshman would undertake to Disguise the fact that
in the last imperial conference the place of Britain in
the empire totally different from that occupied
half century before at the of the world
war. The bonds between mother-ceuntry and do
minions may be strong they may be even stronger
than before but in this conference Britain dealt with
independent nations whose freedom of action was out
OF debate In her handling of the situation the British
showed their customary skill, the conference was a
success which added to the unity Of empire yet 1t
was an. enduring evidence of change the extent of
which is hardly to be measured even yet.. l..-s
a the same time in the native colonies and pro-
"A tectorates the British arc facing difficulties of
staggering nature. One may not say how bad the 4
situation is either in Egypt in India but every one
knows that in both countries British rule is chal-
enged while the extension Of the empire to the Valley
OF the Tigris and the Euphrates had imposed fresh
burden against which the protest is general and I'M
Pressive There is also the disturbing problem
of Ireland, upsettled as 1 write, tempting the .
prophet but promising immediate if not enduring
difficulties.
In India the discontented have had resort to the
weapon Of the boycott they are deliberately refusing
to purchase British goods and the effects even II
exaggerated ARE felt in the British Isles where the
need OF markets is SO acute. Thus at one time the
disorders in Europe and the disturbances in the native
coIonies con,h;,e ...l.. !,