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Show IS THIS THE JOKER7 Hibernians and others who scented the British-American arbitration treaty months boforo it was announced, announc-ed, an 1 who have never ceased to regard re-gard it as a dc facto alMance and nctlve'y to work for its sholving, at last begin to submit to a critical public pub-lic some data worth while. A re-cont re-cont communication from o"ponems of the pa"t has real meat, and if well base.l, clearly points out a joker. According to the last information, the United States guarantees Brl tain's food supply, in case Britain goes to war with anvone whntsiever, ami. If necessary. America will con-ov con-ov that rood to Biltlsh sborps, using force If it Is tamuerod with. In other avoi-'Is this couutrv guarantees to act In a defensive alllonco, no matter who the British foe may be. It apnears that the debate in the British house of commons on the declaration dec-laration of London and the naval orize bill en Mondav. juiv 3, would make Interestine: reading for the American Am-erican neonle. but ihe American correspondents cor-respondents in I rndnn took good cam that tho should be kent In Ignoranca of its chief points. Sir Kdward Grev tho foreign secretary, and Mr. Ilnrv Asqullh. the prime minister, made some startling statements in i-o-anl to the United States, but not ono word of that portion of their speeches nor the faintest allusion to the character char-acter of t'elr statements, was given In the cables to the American uancrs of July I nor has any mention since been made of them To judge by the eabled renorls, the anproval of the declaration of London, which the house of commons voted, was only an ovldence of England's desire de-sire to lessen the horrors of war. and to Insist that when unfortunately war cannot be averted by arbitration, it shall be waged on humanitarian principles. prin-ciples. An actual reading of the dc-hote dc-hote will show conclusively, how-over, how-over, that the leading men "of both parties who spoke expect war with a continental power at no distant date in which tho vital question for' England will be her food supply from abroad, and the only 'difference of opinion expressed ias as to wnothcr the ratification of tho declaration of London would be an effective instrument instru-ment Tor Insuring that food supply or not. Till nnlnnlfto n.nnn.,1 .. 1 ment to the bill providing that tho mattor be referred to n commission of experts, tho question of ratification to be postponed until the commission should report. The government plend ed fr immediate rallOcation, and Sir Edward Grey and Mr ARqulth used as their strongest argument the assurance that the United States would protect and If necessary convoy con-voy with -warships, that portion "of the food supply which would come to England Eng-land from America in neutral vespels. Thero can be no room whatcrer for doubt as to their meaning. Nearly all the prominent men of both parties spoke, but the chief speaker on tho opposition side wns .Mr Arthur Dnlfour. Sir Edward Grev spoke Immediately after Mr. Balfour and dealt with the question In all its aspects. Everything he said was most Interesting, but space will not permit giving any more than the portion of his spee'eh which dealt with tho question ques-tion of blockade, food as contraband, the conversion of merchant vessels Into warships, the sinking of neutral vessels, etc It was In that portion of his speech that he prnctlcaUy guaranteed guar-anteed American protection of foci ships, nnd It Is given verbatim from the official roport of dobnteg Jn the I house of commons, Mondav. Julv 3 1911 It means nn Anglo-American alliance without ratification by the senate and war with England's enemy without the formality of declaring It. Indeed, the premier appearg to have made no .effort at concealment, for we read further that (Mr. Awpilth closed the debate In a short Vpoech, ' but he said sonio notable things. Almost Al-most at the opening no said: "When the executive government of the day, ufter full consideration and deliberation, have come to tho conclusion conclu-sion that a grcnt international Instrument Instru-ment like this Is in the highest iu terests of the peace of the world nnd of,- the mnrltime supremncy of this country they would be guilty of a gross derollctlou ofduty If they did not uso all legitimate means in their power to Insure assent to their policy " "hater on ho Intimated that the Unlt-i'd"StatC8 Unlt-i'd"StatC8 would nse force to prevent pre-vent tho seizure of American food supplies goingto England. He said, 1u reply to Mr. Balfour: "I takf tho c'asowfilch he suggest cd, though be did not actually suggest sug-gest It I take, a case in which, nfter tho declaration of London has been ratified, a belligerent grossly perverted pervert-ed the proIsions of that declaration, as, for Instance, according to the sug Ke8tIon made by the gentleman who has Just sat down (Mr Bonar Law), by treating all food consigned to a country like this, because it has to be lauded at a British port as though it were food destined for a base of operations, op-erations, and therefore might be used for the nutrition of an armed force If that position were taken up by am belligerent and he committed the further fur-ther outrage, which the right honor ablo gentloman suggested, of destroying destroy-ing not only capturing, but destaging destag-ing a neutral ship conveying such food to ono of our ports as m right honorablo friend (Sir Edward Gre ) said, the United States would be llk ly to be the only other power put into in-to that position, do'cs the right honorable hon-orable gentleman (Mr. Balfour) sa that any neutral power would be In the lease degreo hampered or hludr ed In addressing diplomatic remon strances owing to ,"the existence of tho international prize court' 'To say that by fthe establishment of an international prize court the neutral powers have thrown awa their natural powers of offense and defense, and of diplomatic pressure, and, after all. of ultimate force seems to me to be a travesty of the whole situation." We can neither substantiate nor refute re-fute these statements. If thev are of fact, the uproar sure to follow soon will rend the wiuds. , But it will come too late |