The Struggle For Peace

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" I agree very much with the right hon. Gentleman (Sir
Archibald Sinclair) in the value that he attaches to our relations
with the United States of America. I am happy to think that
they have never been better than they are at the present
moment. With regard to the debt, I am not quite sure what the
right hon. Gentleman meant by cauterising it. The settlement
of the debt has to be a settlement between two parties and can-
not be settled by one alone. As for the attitude of the British
Government, I would like to refer the right hon. Gentleman to
the Debate which took place on this subject only a few days
ago in another place, when the spokesman of His Majesty's
Government made it perfectly clear what our attitude was.
" Coming to the trade agreement, I regard that not merely
as an attempt to come to a commercial agreement, which
if we could find a fair settlement, would be of benefit to both
countries, but as an effort to demonstrate the possibility of
these two great countries working together on a subject
which, if they can come to terms, may prove to be the fore-
runner of a policy of wider application. I hope that the right
hon. Gentleman will not feel that it is necessary to display
impatience, because of the length of time which has been taken
over this matter. To begin with, a commercial treaty of that
kind deals with an enormous schedule of articles, every one
of which has to be the subject of discussion and conversation,
and he knows very well that the constitutional procedure in
the United States, however admirably it may be adapted to
a thorough sifting of the question, is not one which lends itself
to expedition. At the present time we have gone through tfais
great schedule and we have agreed upon a great part of it, but,
as always happens in these cases, we have come down after a
time to certain particular instances which offer exceptional
difficulties, and those are not yet entirely resolved. All that
I can say is, that I know there is good will on both sides,
and I hope £hat we shall not have to wait too long before we
are able to announce that we have finally come to an agreed
conclusion.
" I have only one other part of the world upon which I
now need touch, and that is the Far East, where war is still
being carried on with all the horrors which seem inseparable
from modern warfare. The Brussels Conference last Novem-