4 JANUARY 1930, Page 5

r-Generg Smuts in the United - States .

: Not much attention has been given to the -visit 'cif :General Smuts to the United States, but: it would not the surprising if this visit turned out to be extraordinarily :fruitful, and as useful in its way as that of the Prime .Minister. There is at present a wide misunderstanding in the United States about the endeavours of the -rest of the world to build up an apparatus of peace.- -Those 'who are responsible for these endeavours owe no apology to Americans. They took over the idea of the Covenant, an -American inspiration, and made it what it now is It is an amazingly comprehensive instrument, Whieli provides for every emergency, and, above all, seenres 'that there can be no repetition of the ghastly and cruel Mistakes of the Holy Alliance. The fault of the .1-loly Alliance, framed though it was with the most devout intentions, was that it tried to keep the peace by allowing nobody with a grievance to raise his head. It developed, therefore, into a most sinister engine for preserving .the statits quo no matter what oppression it involved. It was then that Canning called in the New World to redress the balance of the Old. Because the dreadful experience was remembered the Covenant was made to include manifold expedients for reviewing and correcting injustice. -