16 MARCH 1929, Page 3

Last week Senator Borah, Chairman of the Foreign Relations Canimittee

in the United States Senate, based an unfortunate condemnation of Sir Austen Chamberlain upon an entire misunderstanding of something Sir Auiten had said. It seems that Sir Austen received some British journalists at Geneva, and, in his usual con- scientious manner, pointed out that the Kellogg Pact was " not an absolute guarantee against war." That, of course, is a commonplace. The Pact will be precisely what we all make it—either very much or very little. One of the journalists then talked to an American journalist, who telegraphed to America his version of the Englishman's version of what Sir Austell had said. The outcome of this game of Russian Scandal was that Sir Austen was represented as having tried to dgnigrer the Pact in every possible way, and Mr. Borah indig- nantly observed that he had always known that Sir Austen disliked and disbelieved in it. No doubt by this time Mr. Borah has been better informed, but here is a sad illustration of the singular lack of knowledge between the two countries upon whose co-operation the peace of the world • depends. We often think Sir Austen's speeches unhappy, but we are confident that if Mr. Borah talked to him for five minutes he would discover that 'he is a very firm friend of the Pact.

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