We are delighted to see that Sir F. Pollock, lecturing
on Wednesday to the London Chamber of Commerce on the Monroe doctrine, gave expression to a view which has often been urged in these columns, namely, that we ought formally to acknowledge the Monroe doctrine—we already agree to it practically—and to express our willingness to support it should the necessity arise. We might, as we proposed a year or so ago, ask the American State Department first to state the doctrine in clear terms, and then put on record our acquiescence in it, and express at the same time our view that its maintenance was a British interest. Such a course would certainly be for the peace of the world, as well as for the security of Canada and our other American possessions. The German Emperor thinks now that he has only to build enough ships to make the United States see the advisability of dropping the doctrine as far as South America is concerned. That incentive to a profligate waste of national resources might be withdrawn if the action we suggest were taken. The Americans, having got our adhesion to the doctrine, might submit it to Germany and the other Great Powers. If their answers were favourable, a great source of future quarrels would be automatically eliminated. The two Americas would be by agreement ruled out of the field of political ambitions. If Germany and the other Powers would not join us in assenting to the doctrine, the Americans would at any rate know where they stood.
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