The American Senate on Friday, March 24th, ratified the Pacific
Treaty, -signed by the four Powers at the Washington Conference, which makes an end of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance. Sixty-seven Senators voted for the Treaty and only twenty- seven against it, so that the two-thirds majority required by the Constitution was exceeded. The Senate ratified the Treaty with the reservation " The United States understands that under the statement in the preamble or under the terms of the Treaty there is no commitment to armed force, no alliance, no obligation to join in defence." It is curious that a Treaty conferring such benefits on America as well as on the other signatories should have been bitterly opposed and that its ratification should have been considered doubtful. But the final vote, we believe, represents the general feeling of the American people, who saw in the Treaty, as we do, a powerful guarantee of peace in the Far East. We discuss this epoch- making decision elsewhere. We may add that the Naval Treaty was ratified on Wednesday by 74 votes to 1.
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