5 MAY 1923, Page 10

When the League of Nations controversy raged in its full

fury after President Wilson's return from Europe in 1919, one of the reasons most commonly given for the unpopularity of the Covenant in the United States, and especially in Irish and German circles, was the fact that the British Empire would have six votes to America's one. At the time the American newspaper cartoonists made great play with this suggestion and portrayed poor Uncle Sam being outvoted by John Bull, Jack Canuck and the other members of the Imperial family. Times have changed, however, and last week in New York President Harding dealt with this very point. Referring to the fact that the United States would have only one vote as against the British Empire's six in the Assembly which elects judges of the World Court, American association with which the President advocated on February 24th last, he said that "the natural kinship of the English- speaking peoples" might be trusted to prevent any untoward events resulting from the apparent disparity in voting strength. It was a very significant remark In the circumstances for the head of the American adminis- tration to make, and it would have been impossible a decade ago.