We have stated the case at its baldest and bluntest.
It is well to be prepared. But we have no doubt that both France and Italy will be more amenable than their present mood suggests if only they can be induced to free their minds from the terrible delusion about an Anglo-American Entente directed against other nations. Even if the worst should happen and the Anglo-American plan should break down for want of universal support, much will still have been gained. It need not be supposed for a moment that the invaluable work which the Prime Minister has begun in America will cease. The great English-speaking nations, no longer viewing each other with mistrust, can reduce their navies somehow though perhaps not exactly in the way now proposed. A new relation has been declared between Great Britain and America and nothing can undo this magnificent fact. As President Hoover and Mr. MacDonald said in their joint announcement to the world on Wednesday, " We approach the old historical problems from a new angle and in a new atmosphere." And they wisely explained once more that this new relation is conditioned by two resolves—the resolve of America to keep free from entanglements and the resolve of Great Britain to co- operate with her European neighbours. If France and Italy do not believe in those declarations we cannot hope that they will believe in whatever else may be said. They will be proved incapable of belief. But somehow we fancy that their mood will yield.
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