We have dealt elsewhere with the question of the renewal
of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, and put what we believe to be the unanswerable case against renewal. Here we must record the fact that though during the past week the subject has been discussed in the House of Commons, in the Imperial Conference, and in the Press, no one has up till now seemed able to make up his mind to come forward and say plainly that the Alliance should not be renewed. Every one declares that of course the Alliance must be abandoned if the Americans really regard it as a cause of estrangement, but no one seems to realize that this is not the way one treats a kinsman and true friend. The very most the Prime Minister, and even General Smuts, can do is to sing : " Ask me no more . . . for at a touch I yield." They forget that the Americans are a proud people, and that if we are to make them feel a real sense of amity we must act on our own initiative, and not expect them to do anything which can seem like asking a favour.
