NEW DIPLOMACY?

Very recently in the London Daily Herald, James Ramsay MacDonald, former premier and present Labor leader, expressed some views on the relationship of the New World with the old. Mr. MacDonald made two suggestions. The first is that it is foolish to believe that international differences are non-existent, and the ex-premier feels that a "nasty frame of mind is growing up" which must be faced at once. The second recommendation is that the situation cannot be effectively treated by means of "old European policies and diplomacies", this recommendation being based on the specific instance of Lord Derby's invitation to Senator Borah to visit Europe Mr. MacDonald understands that some Americans saw in the invitation the working of the "old evil willness of Europe," and feels that "the less the Lord Derbys try to influence America the better."

Thus the problem is left even more than usually in the air, for Mr. MacDonald discards unreservedly "old" methods and "old" diplomacy. It would seem that all efforts at leagues, treaties, conferences, and agreements, gentlemanly or otherwise, in short at any of the adjustments commonly looked for, are bound to fall short of accomplishing their full purpose. For Europe is wily and America suspicious, and the situation becomes more acute.

Obviously the time is ripe for the advent of a new diplomacy. One might imagine, however, that this phenomenon if discovered, will probably be something infinitely old but in modern dress. Unfortunately the moralizing to which this problem is so often and so easily subjected is particularly ineffective. It is to be hoped that men in Mr. MacDonald's position and of his turn of mind will not forever be content with the mere discovery that the world is very much like the unfortunate but rather common individual who doesn't know what he wants and won't be happy till he gets it.