The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-01-01

plary motives that led our State Depart
msnt to propose the meeting OF second
conference at The Hague. 1t Is mistake
to suppose that the invitation has met
with q rebuff that savors Of humiliation,
because both Of the belligerents consider
it inopportune for them TO take part in
such a conference while the present war
is pending. The truth Is that both japan
and Russia have assented to the proposal
in principle and have promised to send
delegates to The Hague after the con-
clusion Of peace. 1t follows, inasmuch
as all the other invited Powers have
shown themselves cordially acqulescent,
a second peace conference will assemble,
so to speak, automatically, at no distant
date. The first conference, it will be
remembered, WAS called by the Car
NICHOLAS H., who lost no time in dis
closing how much genuineness there was
in his professed devotion to peace. We
have faith that Mr.. ROOSEVELT will fur
nish better proofs Of sincerity.
If. as we hope, the Senate shall
promptly rat;fy these arbitration trea-
Mes, which eliminate in an agreement
with Great Britain that Ia substitute
for the abortive convention negotiated
by Mr.. OLNEY and Lord PAUNcEPoTE,
we shall look forward to seeing during
the year that begins to-day good deal
of attention given on both sides OF the
Atlantic to the question whether 1t might
not conduce to the interests OF both
parties for the United States to enter
into combination with Great Britain
strictly limited TO defensive purposes
and modelled upon the species Of alliance
that now connects that country with
Japan. The fundamental principle Of
that carefully restricted compact is we'll
known: it binds each of the signatories
to assist the other, but only when that
other is attacked by more than one great
Power. How Great Britain would profit
from such an understanding is plain;
her navy, instead of requiring inces-
sanity progressive expansion and threat
ening TO impose an intolerable burden
on her taxpayers, would need only to be
kept on an equality with the combined
naval force Of France and Russia, for
she could always rely upon us TO neutral
ize the German fleet. That to us such
a defensive alliance would mean a COM
mensurate economy is no less obvious
we should need thereafter only to
maintain our navy on a footing with
Germany's, because if confronted with
more than single maritime Power we
should have England's cooperation.
Without such IN agreement with Great
Britain it will not be safe for us merely
to keep pace with the German Empire,
for the latter Power would be we'll nigh
assured of assistance from Austria and
Italy, whose united naval force would be
by no means Insignificant. Besides, a
coalition of Germany and Russia against
the United States is at least "a conceiva-
BILE as was the joint ultimatum submitted
to Japan by Russia, Germany and France.
If we are to go on forever eschewing
foreign alliances and adhering stiffly to
a policy of international aloofness which
has. no longer a reason for existence
since our acquisition of the Philippines,
we require sea power equal, we will not
say TO Germanys, or even to that of
France, but to that OF Germany and
Russia combined. Even then we should
be at the mercy Of triple coalition like
that to which Japan succumbed We
repeat that We can imagine no interna-
tionl agreement more useful 10 both Of
the parties and better calculated to as
sure universal peace upon the ocean
than a defensive alliance between the
United States and England. for which
reason 1t would not surprise us if the
of such league should
come into the foreground of discussion
during the coming twelvemonth.
SO far as exterior troubles are con-
cerned the year 1905 opens auspiciously
for Great Britain. Since the conclusion
Of treaty with France, by which a con-
that has made bad blood for
many a generation, the dispute about
the French shore of Newfoundland,
was definitely settled the British En-
pire has been practically impregnable,
except on its Indian frontier, and there,
Tor a twelvemonth at all events, it will
h. 20 nothing to dread from its one great
neighbor Russia, which will be preoc-
cupied or exhausted The apprehension
that the United Kingdom might possibly
become embroiled in the Far Eastern
conflict has passed away, for no one now
believes that either France or Germany
will array itself on the Cars side, and
IN the absence Of such n demonstration
Japan cannot call for British aid While,
however, the horizon seems to be free
from clouds, there is quite enough in the
internal condition OF Great Britain to
compel anxious attention on the part Of
hose who are alive to the gravity OF her
fiscal problem, a gravity to which the
ruling price of consols bears admontory
witness. The staggering cost of the
Boer War, coupled with the tremendous
burden imposed by the obligations as-
5umed in the Land Purchase act.-to
which must be added the onerous neces-
slty of spending more and more upon
he navy il England is to remain without
any ally except Japan-have rendered
Il increasingly difficult for Chancellors OF
The EIchequer to make both ends meet
without exciting wide discomfort.
The British Exchequer has well nigh