The Alaska citizen., 1915-04-26
ROOSEVELT |S CRITICISED BY
 LEADING PAPER
S TAKEN TO TASK FOR His OPPOSITION TO
 WILSON.

dent Wilson did regarding the Ger luan invasion of Belgium He would not have nterfered by diplomatic protest But Mir Roosevelt our other ex-President. continues 10 storm because President Wilson did not send a sharp note to Berlin. Ones sincere conviction is that even Mir Roosevelt would Lave followed . Q course of non-interference mark ed out by the present Chief Magis- 1 trate had he been the occupant of the White House when these pro dieious troubles began. This con 5iction is founded on something MT. Roosevelt did when he was himself i President of the United States
 i MT. Roosevelts curious insistence that a certain Hague convention bound" the United States Govern ment to protest against the viola 1 ton of Belgium has been repeated fly shown to be without the slight est legal foundation. Great Britain has never ratified the fifth Hague i convention of 1907 which dealt with the rights and duties of neutral States: and it has been disclosed again and again that article 20 of that convention provides:
 The provisions of the present convention do not apply except be- tween the contracting powers and | then only if all tine belliserents are , parties to the convention
 Great Britain was not a party -o the congenti0n' but was a bel ligerent, consequently this Hague convention, under the express stip- ulation of article 20, became null and void with reference to the case Of Belgium. Had President Wilson sent to Berlin the protest against the violation of Belgium neutrality which Mr Roosevelt continues to say the President was bound to send, the United States Government would have been made to look like an ignorant fool by the answer of the German foreign secretary
 MT Roosevelt is personally re sponsible, to a large degree, for the iunwarranted feeling lately aroused in England over this country's si- lence concerning the wrongs of Bel sium His articles bitterly denounc- ing President Wilson's policy have been widely circulated in the Brit ish Isles, and the London correspon- dent of a New York paper recently called special attention to the fact that English readers took it for granted, or might naturally sup pose" that an ex-President of the
 United States would not speak so positively on matter of interna- tional law" if he was not quite sure I If his ground.
 The English people who read MT
 Rooseyelt's furious attacks on the President of the United States be cause of his official silence re- garding Belgium, assume that if MT Roosevelt were President, the Kaiser would long since have received from the government of the great republic d whitening condemnation of the Belgian invasion and conquest
 But how little they know MT. Roosevelt, When he was President
 war arose between Russia and Ja- pan over Korea. Japan determined to prevent Russian domination Of the Korean empire Japan did not
 ayOW a purpose to make Korea a
 part of the Japanese empire, eX- tineuishing Korean independence and nationality; but, with Japanese armies in the Korean peninsula to checkmate Russia, the Japanese plan
 Jf aeGrandi2ement quickly WSa di
 closed The United States had a treaty with Korea which was still in force The second paragraph of the very first article contained this sol emn covenant between the Korean
 nd American governments
 If other power deal unju5tly or progressively with either government,
 the other will exert their good offices,
 on being informed of the case, to
 bring about an amicable agreement,
 thus showing their friendly feelings"
 Under that treaty provision the
 Korean Government appealed to
 President RooseVelts administra-
 ton to use it's influence with Japan
 for the preservation of Korea as an
 independent state. To be eXtin- |, guished was the same as injustice and oppression, from the Korean point of view. The Koreans wished
 to be saved by "an amicable ar rangement' brought about through
 the good offices of the United States Government |, is betraying no dip lomatic secret to say that the Roose- welt administration, wisely guided al | lIldl lllllt III ' al Eds SltI II pI
 EliLu Root, did not go to Korea g assistance as against the imperial istic designs of Japan upon Korean sovereignty. President Roosevelt was deaf to the appeals of Korea for the help it desired. and the treaty pledge between Korea and the Unit ed States went the way of scraps
 of paper"
 President Roosevelt might have
 protested to Japan against perma-
 nent occupation of Korea, and he might have based his protest on a
 treaty with Korea which was actu- ally in force. That he did not do
 so was most commendable. By such
 an act he would have accomplished
 nothing for Korea, but would have involved his own country in need
 less and serious complications with
 the strongest Oriental power The safe and wise course of the Roose-
 yelt administration in that affair
 is what convinces one that, as Presi-
 lent in this infinitely more difficult
 period, MT. Roosevelt would have
 maintained an official silence" con-
 corning Belgium that would have brought him no end of praise for