All this, however, must be read in conjunction with a
very significant statement made by the American delegates in- London late on Tuesday night. They said that they had not in any way changed their position. The United States had always been willing to pledge herself to consultation in an international crisis, but she remained unwilling to be a party to any treaty, consultative or otherwise, which set up a danger of her obligation- being misinterpreted as a promise of military help. The delegates then emphasized this principle by showing that the-proposals hitherto made for consultation in regard to the Mediterranean were open to this objection. It would be possible for France to argue that as she had been offered the consultative pact in return for her compliance in reducing her Navy she would have a right to claim help if the Pact failed to avert war. This warning is, or ought to be, perfectly plain; but we fear that it would be very difficult to frame a pact which would not lend itself somehow or other to the interpretation that France had acquired a moral though not a legal right to receive help.
