BRITAIN AND THE PARTY STRUGGLE IN AMERICA.
WE have explained in our first article our anxieties in regard to the interests of the world as a whole. We have other anxieties quite as poignant, perhaps even more poignant, in regard to our own special relations with America. If the matter were not so serious, it would be difficult not to find a good deal of ironic amusement in the topsy-turvy nature of the present situation. Without question our Delegates in Paris, and public opinion here generally, in the newspapers and in Parliament, have been in favour of playing up to President Wilson as the representa- tive of America, in order to show our gratitude for the help so generously rendered to the good cause by America, and still more in order that we may make clear the touch of blood and kinship which we have all felt so strongly, and which has come to the surface from the hidden depths of the Englishman's nature. " Well, if the Americans insist, let them have it their own way, even if it is not our way," has been undoubtedly the national mot d'ordre. We have been content to leave matters almost entirely in Mr. Wilson's hands, and to do the things not which we our- selves wanted, but which he wanted, rather than have friction with America. We do not regret that fact. Indeed, we approve it.
But now comes the tragi-comedy of the business. While we have been trying to conciliate America by every con- ceivable concession to Mr. Wilson's special predilections and views, we suddenly find that all the time we have been caught in the American Party machine, and that what we have regarded as generous concessions to American views have been represented in America by a large section of the great Republican Party, and possibly by a majority of American politicians, as examples of British politicalclever- ness and management. The prevalent complaint against Mr. Wilson and the Democratic Party is that they have let themselves be thoroughly bamboozled by us, and that John Bull has led Uncle Sam by the nose in Paris. The President, it is alleged, has done exactly what he, the cunning old faux bonhomme of London, has desired. Our American critics profess not to be person- ally angry with us. We have only been doing what we always do—that is, thinking of our own interests, looking out for Number One, practising the game of grab, and so on. We only did what it was our nature to do, and they rather respect us for it. But what they do resent is the way the President and the Democrats have given in to us. Of course this view is nonsense. It is only a piece of the babble of the political auction-room. One would not be human, however, if one did not feel rather irritated at seeing our concessions, over some of which many of us are very, very sore, represented as triumphs of Machia- vellian ingenuity. No doubt it would be easy to exaggerate the importance of these denunciations of President Wilson for truckling to Great Britain. They are of course made for the plat- form, and to a large extent will prove ephemeral. Still, we cannot disguise from ourselves that it is from accusations of this kind that national quarrels often begin, and we confess that we do hope that the true friends of Britain amongst the Republican Party—and there are a great many in its various sections, able and leading men such SS Senator Root, Dr. Murray Butler (the President of Columbia University), and General Leonard Wood, to name only three—will see to it that no real misunderstanding on this head shall arise. The men we have named, and others of their following, are no doubt strong anti- Wilsonites, but we do hope that they and men like them will make it clear to their countrymen that, be the Wilson policy right or wrong, it certainly has not been a policy dictated by Britain, but rather one accepted by Britain solely because it is an American policy and not on any other ground. Take for example a very important matter, and one on which we are bound to say we feel specially sore. The Spectator has not criticized the Mandatory principle, but accepted it. We can say, however, from the bottom of our hearts, that we would have accepted it from no one else but the Americans. It was a hard matter for a proud nation to swallow, ignoring as it does the main fact about our Empire, which is that it has been ruled ever since the days of Cornwallis by the golden rule of government
in the interests of the governed, and suggesting, as it does, that we could not be trusted to take over lands soiled by the iniquities of German rule except under the watchful eye of a Committee composed, say, of representatives of China, Peru, Siam, Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica.
However, these matters had better not be gone into too minutely, for on them it might be easy to say something the effects of which we should regret. All that we shall do, then, is to make a very strong appeal to the wisest and best part of the American nation to see to it that the affair of the League, and especially our relations with America, are as little caught up in and sacrificed to the exigencies of Party warfare as possible. Party warfare there must be, but we do trust that in America, and also here, care will be taken to keep us out of it. It is all very well for Republicans to blacken the eyes of Democrats, and we fully recognize that there are many excuses for so doing. Again, we understand the desire of the Democrats to repre- sent the Republicans as selfish, parochial, and unmindful of their greater duties, and fully appreciate the soreness they feel in seeing their great leader and representative so unfairly, nay, so outrageously and brutally, attacked as he often is. But here again, we do ask that our relations with America, and especially the support which has been given to President Wilson qua President of the United States, shall not be sacrificed to the desire to deal a shrewd blow to their enemies by the fighting Republicans. After all, the Americans are an essentially chivalrous as well as a generous people, and undoubtedly true chivalry will con- sist in not yielding to the temptation so dear to the politician to score a good Party point whatever the consequences. When the consequences are the making of bad blood between the two sections of the English-speaking race, the sense of chivalry and justice should forbear the raising of prejudice against Britain. All Americans in their hearts realize, and many of them have nobly testified to the fact, that our losses have not been small. To add to them the loss of the goodwill of our kinsmen, which we had hoped would bring healing to our wounds, would be a calamity unspeakable ; good Republicans and good Democrats will surely do their best to keep Britain out of the Party Imbroglio.
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