By 7, B. Macaulay (President of the Sun Life Assurance Ca. of Canada).
The following article has appeared in the press of Canada, and is to appear—has probably done so by now—in several of the French and British papers.
It involves a question which es of very great interest to all Britons and we believe to Americans also.
Some months ago the suggestion was made quite freely that Great Britain should transfer her West Indian Colonies to the United States in satisfaction of her debt to the American government. Having long been interested in Canadian-West Indian relations, this proposal led me to investigate the basis of this indebtedness, and the allied question whether the United States has really borne her fair share of the burdens of-the war. It is now realized that the Empire is not for sale, but I crave the indulgence of my American friends if I set forth my conclusions on the other points.
'Let us deal first with the Allied debt, and here we are faced with a fundamental question. That the debt is technically due no one denies, But is it morally' and rea-; sonably due from the standpoint of equity Tae Cause or Att.
Most of us, I think, consider that even from the outbreak of the war the men of Britain and of the Dominions were fighting the battles of the United States>as well as of our own Empire and of our Allies. We have all heard Americans also express that opinion. Though it took some years for their people as a whole to recognize that fact, it was as true in August, 1914, as it was later when the gallant boys of both nations were fighting side by side. Germany aimed at world domination, and, had she won the war, her political and commercial control of all Europe, all Africa, and much of Asia, would have been at once established. She would have been the Colossus of the world. Her eyes were already fixed covetously on South America, and developments there would have followed rapidly. With the naval, military and financial resources then at her back,- what would she have cared fon the Monroe doe-trine?
It would, however, be hardly reasonable to claim that the United States should have entered the war at its outbreak, for the people had to be wakened. It is doubtful if they were sufficiently informed as to the merits of the struggle prior to the Lusitania incident. What would have happened, however, if the United States had intervened then? The war would have been shortened by two years, a million lives and tens of billions of dollars would have been saved, the condition of thesvorld to-day would not be what it is, and this problem of the war debt not have arisen.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.