TOPICS OF THE DAY.
MR. LLOYD GEORGE AND WASHINGTON.
IT is with the greatest possible satisfaction that we record the news that Mr. Lloyd George is, after all, to go to Washington. That this decision involves a very con- siderable personal sacrifice on Mr. Lloyd George's part we do hot doubt. In spite of his wonderful spirits he is bound to be, to some extent, a tired man, and the more tired a man is the more difficult he finds devolution. No doubt the two voyages will at the moment be restful, but there will be a very great strain in the three weeks spent in America, and when the Prime Minister gets back to England the labour of overcoming arrears of work is bound to be colossal. Still, it was absolutely right of Mr. Lloyd George to decide to go at all costs, and all risks ; and we congratulate him on the wisdom he has shown in neglecting everything but the essential in this matter. The essential is making the Conference a success, and making it a success through a complete and absolute understanding between the two branches of the English-speaking race. We may argue for ever ; we may " resolute till the cows come home," we may spill oceans of ink and write millions of leaders, we may pile Pelion upon Ossa in the way of platform speeches. We may talk of Pacific problems, Chinese reconstruction, of the discovery of means for meeting the imperative Japanese need for expansion, of disarmament by sea and land. We may make the most ingenious of proposals for restoring international credit. But vastly important as are all these matters, we always come back to the essential matter—the placing of our relations with America upon a new and permanent founda- tion. Remember that what is needed is not more friendliness, nor a better desire not to injure each other's material interests, nor the prevention of our respective statesmen and diplomatists from occasionally saying nasty things about each other. Our millionaires may quarrel over the turn of a few cents or a sixpenny-piece in a big deal in oil, or shipping, or whatever you like, and may swear that the honour, safety, and welfare of their nations are involved in " doing " the other man ; but we need not worry over such things as that. Our attitude vis-d-vis with America, which is never regarded as a foreign country, is perfectly secure.
But we want something more than that. We have got to have something more than that if we are to make full use of the fact that the English-speaking peoples form so vast a portion of civilized humanity and are destined, if all goes well in the course of the next fifty years, to extend their influence on every continent. The possibilities of our race are heightened and inspired by the fact that both nations honestly desire peace, and are profoundly anxious to carry out the square deal throughout the world. Further, if they can use it in common, they are prepared to use the big stick to prevent the equilibrium of the globe being upset by ambitious States, eager for ascendancy over their neighbours, and willing to put themselves in the hands of any autocrat who will promise them their desires. If the British Empire and America can really get together they may accomplish far more for peace and justice than can be accomplished by any other method. This need not mean, and must not mean, that they are to obliterate the independence of other States, or to act as the joint bullies of the universe ; or, again, that they are to overturn what has already been accomplished in the matter of international agreement. Their union means no essential antagonism to, and no uprooting of, what has already been planted. It does mean, however, the expansion, the development on sound lines, and the maintenance of the principles of international law. It may mean that nations will be forced to keep their agreements without the arbitrament of the sword, that dolorous ultimo ratio of the older Jurists. It may mean that international independence shall be secured without the dangers of an exaggerated nationalism. We may reach in the world of nations what we have reached within each community— freedom and independence for the individual in his home, so long as his freedom and independence- do not, injure or prevent the freedom and independence of his fellows. We may provide through courts of law and a judicial system the machinery for deciding when a collision of interests takes place which nation is to give way, why it is to give way, and how it is- to give way. If Britain and America unite, we may preserve nationalism while also securing Peace and disarmament.
Whether Mr. Lloyd George yet realizes the full meaning of the golden opportunity that stretches out before him we cannot say. We are sure of one thing, and that is, that when he gets to America he will catch fire at the prospect, and realize that we can never regard the other half of our race as foreigners. When he finds himself in physical contact with the other and greater home of the English-speaking peoples, creation will broaden in his view. His mind, quick and eager, and possessed with something of the poet's vision and the poet's tempestuous zeal, will find that it is embraced on every side by glowing, ardent forces out of which the world may be rebuilt. If the Aquitania,' as may well be, so follows her majestic path across the ocean that she reaches New York as the lights are beginning to flicker and gleam in the vast towers of the seafront of New York, let him take what he sees as an omen, and as his guide to honour and success. That scene of architectural pomp and splendour, to which the world affords no parallel, was raised by men of English kin. Those lights are shining in the new home of the race—a home which, though it has so long been open to all comers, has made them the children of the English tongue, of the English common law, and of English ideals in personal freedom and civic virtue. From one miracle let him feel the possibility of another. In America may be cast the spell that shall heal the wounds of the world and make men resolve not to seek war any more.
If Mr. Lloyd George feels the inspiration, as we are sure he will, his busy brain will ask at once, " What shall we do to be saved How shall we make the fullest, the best, the most lasting use of the golden opportunity which opens like a banner unspread to music ? " He will make it beat, we believe, first by reticence and to some extent self- effacement, and next by plainness and firmness. The avoid- ance of those arts of which he has sometimes been accused, the arts of placating and smoothing, and so glossing over difficulties rather than facing them and getting rid of them, is essential. He should begin by an act of supreme boldness. He should make it clear (and here we feel sure that his instinct will guide him in the right track) that he has not come to America to do a deal, to snatch an advan- tage, or in any mood which can be represented as that of the man who says : " I can quite see what you want me to do, and why it is worth your while to get me to do it. What I want to know is how are you going to make it worth my while to do it ? " Mr. Lloyd George's prime duty must be to make it clear to the President, the Secretary of State, and those who command the powers of the Senate, that he has come not to watch or to criticize or to bargain, but to support President Harding in the great task he has undertaken. He must make it clear that he has left Britain, at a moment so precarious and so incon- venient, not because he hopes for any personal or national advantage, but solely because he sees an opportunity of getting our relations with America put upon a true basis, of reaching an understanding by which our dual influence will be cast in the same direction and never sterilized by any processes of cancelling out. " I am here to help in every way possible," must be his words of greeting to Mr. Harding. That must be the end and the beginning of his instructions to himself.
We have imagined the situation, as we believe it demands, on the highest plane ; but, though we are convinced that that is the spirit in which President Harding framed his plan, we must not be supposed to imagine that Mr. Lloyd George will find a political paradise when he lands at New York, and still less when he reaches Washington. Of course, he will find nothing of the kind. He will probably see a good many of the old Paris and Versailles faces. He will note the same jealousies and misunderstandings and misgivings growing up, the same tendency to ask : " Where does my country come in ? " or even worse : " Where do I come in in this arrangement ? " The same old willingness to wait on circumstance rather than on principle is sure to raise its hoary head. All the same, there are, we believe, better opportunities for overcoming these evil and mushroom growths thaa there were in the autumn of 1918. The world has learnt a good deal since those days, and must now apply its lesson. Mr. Lloyd George may find ambition, party rancour, sordid desires, and personal intrigues rank at Washington, but we sincerely hope that he will not be misled by their appearance. Nothing should Wpersuade him to believe that the spirit behind the ashington Conference is a selfish one. The instruments by which great things have to be accomplished, if at all, are often ugly and ill-designed, but that is not a reason for abandoning the main task.
In President Harding's character there is a guarantee for success. He does not want roses and laurel wreaths for his own brow, but to get something done.
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