19 APRIL 1919, Page 1

The declaration about the Monroe Doctrine is of course a

direct response to Republican criticisms in the United States. Personally we are delighted that a Doctrine which has served the world so well in the past should be maintained. To have superseded it would indeed have been to exchange the solid for the vague. At the some time we do not profess to understand how the mandatory principle for Great Britain and the -Allies in controlling small or ill-organized countries is squared with the maintenance of the Monroe Doctrine, which says " Hands off no mandatories here !" The Monroe Doctrine gives the United States a kind of potential overseerxhip in South America, although we can never be certain from time to time what such States as the Argentine may think of that overseership.