NEWS OF THE WEEK.
fir HE Republican Party Executive in America has taken a
very serious step in publishing a series of amendments, suggested by Mr. Root, to the draft Covenant of the League of Nations. Mr. Root proposes to reserve the Monroe Doctrine and America's immigration laws as subjects with which the League shall have no concern. But his chief amendment would enable America or any other Power to withdraw from the League at a year's notice after five years. Thetis to say, America's guarantee of the territorial integrity of France with Alsace might run for no more than six years. By that time Germany might have recovered her spirits and begun to prepare for another war. We can easily imagine that to France, exhausted by the terrible strain of this unprovoked struggle, a temporary League of Nations would offer few attractions as compared with the definite advantages of a good strategic frontier on the Rhine. A permanent League, with a permanent guarantee from America, like the Belgian " scrap of paper" of 1839, might afford France security. She could hardly put her trust in a temporary League.
