We should have deemed such an attitude as indecent to the point of being impossible. It would, moreover, be all the more impossible because our Coalition Governmentafter obtaining an overwhelming majority at the General Election of 1918 on the hypocritical pretext of "making Germany pay "-joined forces with President Wilson at the Paris Peace Conference in whittling away every Allied claim against Germany, including all claims for war costs, of which Mr. Lloyd George publicly boasted "we have not asked for a single mark." How in the face of that performance could we subsequently round upon countries that have been devastated like France and Belgium, and invaded like Italy, and insist on their ruining themselves by repaying us everything we had prevented their getting from Germany? ? Had Monsieur Clemenceau, Monsieur Poincaré, or Baron Sonnino been listened to in 1919 the position of the Allies to-day would be vastly different and vastly better. Germany would never have been allowed to defraud her creditors, and every champion of civilization would be proportionately more prosperous. When, therefore, our proGermans, whether of the Radical or the Socialist Party or disgruntled ex-Coalitioners, complain that under the Debt settlement we shall only be repaid by Italy a fraction of what we lent her (£4,500,000 a year on a debt of £582,510,000), we answer, "Whose fault is that?" Much merriment has been caused in political circles by the contrast between the sympathy expressed in Rome by Mr. Sidney Webb (Mr. Ramsay MacDonald's President of the Board of Trade) and the waspish fury of Mr. Philip Snowden and Mr. Ramsay MacDonald at the "leniency" of the Baldwin Government towards Italy. IT is common ground among all Parties, including the Littlest of Little Englanders in Manchester-who have practical reasons for their attitude-that Policy in British interests in the Far East, notably in China, are of much value to the British Nevertheless, we seem to have no Chinese Policy, nor have we had one for some years beyond the utterance China People. of amiable platitudes and that unquenchable optimism that enables Responsible Statesmen to believe that things are never quite so bad as the persons immediately concerned suppose, and that, provided we don't take the situation too seriously, all will come right in the end. Such hopefulness has derived little support from Shanghai, Hong-Kong, and elsewhere, where war has been declared and relentlessly waged against everything British by a dangerous combination of local anarchists subsidized by Moscow agents and openly sympathized with by nascent Chinese Nationalism. Optimism at moments was in eclipse, but of late it has revived, and once more we are told that the situation is "improving." For this there was clearly room. Is it true? Those on the spot must know. From a distance China appears to be in complete chaos, without any Government to guide it, and with the various provinces at the mercy of military dictators whose fortunes vary with such celerity that no sooner is one hailed as victor than we learn he has been utterly smashed. The Home public keenly sympathize with all Britons whose lives lie in such unpleasant places as many parts of China inevitably are nowadays, but they are completely bewildered by Chinese nomenclature and are somewhat in the dark as to the wishes of their distant compatriots. Our Democracy is anything but well informed about the Far East, and has no definite ideas as to what should be done, or indeed what can be done. The only practical suggestion we can make is that our Government should mark out its own course in accordance with British interests, and not go cap-in-hand round foreign Foreign Offices expecting that what seems good to us will necessarily seem good to them. THE time has long gone by when the Home Government could at its own sweet will summon the Dominion Govern Imperial ments to confer in London. For one thing government everywhere has become increasingly complicated and laborious, which makes it increasingly difficult for Dominion Prime Ministers to spend several months of any year in travelling. We need only look at the state of public affairs in Canada, South Africa, and Australia in order to realize how much hay overseas statesmen already have on their respective forks. Canadian politics appear to be at a deadlock, from which there is probably no issue except another General Election. South Africa is more or less in chaos (of which no one can foretell the end), thanks to the numerous thorny problems General Hertzog and his ambitious colleagues insist on raising. Mr. Bruce, the Australian Prime Minister, holds a much stronger position than either General Hertzog or Mr. Mackenzie-King, as he received a clear and emphatic mandate to tackle Revolutionary Terrorism, to which he is applying himself with his customary ability, but it is no light task and must absorb all his energy for some considerable time. It cannot be easy for any of these heads of Governments to attend an Imperial Conference some thousands of miles away except on some supreme question that brooked no delay. We at Home must, moreover, recognize that the practice of Imperial consultation suffered a set-back, which has abated Overseas enthusiasm, when a change of Government in London two years ago resulted in the " scrapping " of almost the entire programme of the Imperial Conference held the preceding autumn. Overworked Dominion Premiers, who had made a special effort to come to London, and who threw themselves with ardour into the work of a Conference which was by common consent a conspicuous success, subsequently found all their time and trouble wasted owing to the accident that a Conservative Government had lost a General Election on local issues, that a minority Government of Little Englanders had come into power with the aid of another Little England minority, and between them "Liberalism" and Socialism were able to repudiate the decision of "the British Commonwealth of Nations" assembled in Conference. It was anything but an exhilarating episode, and we cannot be surprised at its damping Overseas zeal in the Conference cause. DURING the last two years successive British Governments have periodically indicated further Imperial Conferences. Mr. J. H. Thomas, as Colonial Secretary, "Why not Overseas?" made no concealment of his anxiety to participate in a gathering which the Government of which he was an ornament had done not a little to discourage. There were even positive announcements that a Conference would be held during the Socialist régime. Nothing came of them. Again, during the present Ministry there have been yet more definite statements concerning "the next Imperial Conference," for which the invitations are said to have been issued, and semi-official newspapers have selected the Autumn as the time and London as the place. There are certainly no lack of important questions demanding inter-imperial consultation, unless Mother Country and Dominions are in a political sense to continue drifting apart, as they seem to have done since the Armistice, partly from the pressure of the overwhelming pre-occupation of domestic affairs. Partly, it must also be said, through the mischievous influence of the Geneva League of Nations which is an obsession with our Home politicians. It equally appeals to "Internationalists," who conceive themselves as prescribing for the Universe, and to Little Englanders who regard the League as a veritable Godsend in helping them to realize their dream of dissolving the British Empire under the respectable cover of "a still larger patriotism." One of the objects that undoubtedly appealed to the American authors of the Covenant was its inevitable tendency to weaken the ties uniting the King's Dominions. Centrifugal forces were set in motion by the Treaty of Versailles. They received a fillip at Locarno, where the Imperial Foreign Minister only professed to represent Great Britain. The sooner there is an Imperial stock-taking the better. We remain, however, of the opinion we have constantly expressed in these pages, that on every ground it is desirable that this process should be carried out in one or other of the Dominion capitals. Infinitely more good would accrue to the Empire from the British Prime Minister, accompanied by the Colonial Secretary and the Foreign Minister, attending an Imperial Conference Overseas than from the Dominion Prime Ministers once more assembling in London. If our Home Statesmen suggested that Europe could not spare them at this juncture we should unhesitatingly describe them as pessimists. They underrate the resilience of this old world. Mail's Mission OUR Prime Minister speaks so sagaciously on Industrial questions that it is ten thousand pities he has never allowed his mind to stray from Industry to Finance The Daily and to see with his own eyes the creeping to the U.S.A. paralysis which is inflicted on our major industries by an obsolete currency policy imposed by a handful of Bankers and a handful of bureaucrats whose bidding every Government-whether Coalition, Conservative, or Socialist-is prepared to do. In the course of a speech at Sunderland a few weeks ago Mr. Stanley Baldwin said: I venture to think that no trade union leader could do better service to the cause he represents than by investigating closely what the methods are that enable the American workmen to enjoy a better standard of living than any other working people in the world, to produce more, and at the same time to have so much higher wages. Subsequently in the House of Commons Mr. R. S. Hudson (Member for Whitehaven) thus appealed to the Prime Minister: Personally I wish the Prime Minister would agree to send out to America an official delegation of trade unionists to study the methods adopted there and bring back an unbiased report. I am not pretending, and honourable members opposite who have recently been in America would not agree with me if I did pretend, that everything out there is perfect. But you cannot get away from the fact that, compared with pre-war, real wages over there have risen by something like 20 per cent., and, compared with pre-war, real wages here have fallen by 10 per cent. When you have a position like that it is idle to say that there is no lesson to be learned. With characteristic energy and public spirit the Daily Mail resolved to undertake such an inquiry, to be made on the spot "by Trade Unionists straight from the workshop." It therefore invited six working trade unionists, chosen from the engineering and kindred industries, to visit the United States so that they may have an opportunity of informing |