American Notes of the Week
(By Cable)
MR. MACDONALD'S VISIT.
Appraisal of the full effect of Mr. MacDonald's visit must await the event, as with the chances and changes of time they unfold themselves. Meanwhile it may be said without qualification that, at any rate in American eyes, his visit has already born ample fruit. Mr. MacDonald has done much to dissipate the suspicion left by the abortive Geneva Conference and the Anglo-French Naval Pact. Certainly he has carried the conviction that behind his words of goodwill are the realities of a sincere and reasoned faith and a firm purpose. Press comment, even in papers previously hostile to Anglo- American negotiations or adversely critical of them, as well as the personal testimony of Congressmen, members of the Administration and others who have met Mr. MacDonald, reveal an entirely changed atmosphere. It is felt, too, that the President and the Prime Minister have co-operated admirably to overcome the concrete difficulties about which, even at the time of Mr. MacDonald's arrival, apprehension was apparent. Naval equality is not only accepted in principle, but the differences in the way of its realization are composed or likely to be. Headway has been made in meeting the views of Congressmen who were not entirely in sympathy with what had been done.
The susceptibilities of other countries have been scrupulously respected, as the acceptance of invitations to the forthcoming London Conference testifies. Much remains for the future, but there is reason to hope, as the New York World remarks, that " the more certain it becomes that Anglo-American Naval rivalry is ended, the greater the probability of reaching agreement with the other Powers."
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