The Atlantic Community

: • 'I ' •' ~>-- ' I. I. ,·... .. I J I , _. I • I . ~ .\ REVIEvVS THE ATLANTIC COMMUNITY1 The recently signed loan agreement between Great Britain _ and the. United States was followed by ·an outburst of transatlantic name-calling which took one back to the good old- hearty days of the mid-nineteenth century, when Engli_shmen and_ Americans, havi_ ng no serious worries ~bout the rest of the" world, felt rio inhibitions in saying what they. thought of each other.__ _Nevertheless, everyone seems to recognize it a~ the beginning of some .sort of collaboration between the two countries in the economic - 'sphere similar to the collaboration in the political sphere which has marked their relations for the past generation. Some Anglophiles in the United s·tates have of late been vigorously preaching the idea 'of an "Atlantic Community." According to their highly selective _ marshaliing of pah historical events this .has really ·been in existence ever since President Monroe issued his famous state paper in 1823, though the British and· Am~rican peoples were unaware of the fact~ If this doctrine -should .win general acceptance in the English-speaking countries, its implications for the future of world international relations would be sinister. ·.\Vhat.is the probable future of the relationship between the two Anglo-Saxon po~ers, and how does Canada fit into it? "Nothing,". says Mr. Sumner Welles in his introduction to Professor· Brinton's volume,2 "would prove to be more fatally dest:I"uctive of our ·hopes -for world peace than for the Anglo-Saxon powers to create·.an Anglo-Saxon bloc for the purpose of dominating or 'ganging-up' on.other nations. But·a partnership between the Un_ited Kingdom\and the United States for the purpose of making it possible for the vVorld Organization to function successfully can greatly speed the attainment of that objective." Whether the British ~nd American peoples hav· e_the ·int~lligence and imagination- to give this ·lead to the rest of the world is the most important question in world politi.cs that faces us today. The interest of Canada in this question is .too obvious to need discussion.·Our- favourite Canadian concep-tion of ourselves as the interpreter between lNorth Atlantic Triangle: the Interplay· of Canada, the United_ States and Great_ B,·itain. By JoHN BARTL.ET BREBNER. New-Haven: Yale University Press [Toronto: Ryerson Press). 1945: Pp. xxii, 386. ($5.50) . The Big Tlzree. By DAVID DALLIN. New Haven: Yale University Press [Toronto: Ryerson Press]. 1945. Pp. ix, 292. ($7.50) The United States and Britain. By CRANE BRINTO~. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 1945. Pp. xii, 305. ($2.50) , . America's Place in the World. By l\TATHANIEL PEFFER. New York: Viking Press [Toronto: Macmilla~]. 1945. Pp. x, 236. ($3.50) America's Stake in Britain's Future. By GEORGE SouLE. ~ew York: Viking..Press [Toronto: Macmillan]. 1945. Pp. viii, 232. ($3.50) 2This volume is the first of a,series on American foreign poli_cy edited_by ~umner \Yelles. {96 .I '· t· -. ~ i·· .... ',I REVIEWS I 197 the British and the Americans js as naive and adolescent as the idea of , most Americans that "America, gives a lead t() the rest of the world by·her high.moral standards, her disinterestedness and benevolence in world affairs. · A.true·r figure to describe o"l.1r part in past Anglo-American ·r. elations would be that. of the little.brother who makes a nuisance of himself by tagging on behind the big boy~ when they go off for a ball game on the corne~-lot and who has to be pacified by-being allowed to field stray balls behind the catcher's box. But we have now outgrown the little-boy stage. We are now a member ofone of the teams in the \Vorld Series. ' Of the books listed in this review, Professor Brebner's stands out by - itself. · The other fou.r are all books for the present.moment, written to inform and influence American opinion in . the present. ·~ritical post-war period. Professor Brebner's is the final volume in tf:te gr_ eat Carnegie series on the relations of Canada and the United States which has been in course 1 of publication...