New-York tribune., 1918-12-24
America to Take Lead
in Feeding Liberated
Peoples of the Entente
Hoover to Direct
Work of Relief
Questions of Food and
Shipping to Come Be
fore League of Nations

PARIS, Dec. 90 (By The Associated
Press).-President Wilson's confer
ences to-day and tomorrow will Writ
ually complete the preliminaries he is
expected to dispose of before going to
England They will probably lay the
principal part of the groundwork for
the actual peace conference.
Mr.. Wilson considers the most press
ing of all problems before the Entente
nations in q fair way toward being
solved. This is the question of supply
ing food to the starving peoples of lib
Grated countries. 1t now seems prob
able that the work will be handled
principally by the United States,
through Herbert C. Hoover, American
Food Administrator
1t has been made plain to the En-
tente nations that the United States
has no wish to claim entire credit for
the work of relief in the minds of the
people who are to be fed, and salts
factory understanding appears to be in
sight
fUUlCWS n6Iu III ADey6nCf.
Participation by the United States
in various councils that have been
handling food questions, matters of
shipping and the like, is being gradu-
ally wound up, as American officials
are trending toward the opinion that
these are proper subjects for the con
sideration of league of nations, or
at least of preliminary organizations
which may precede it.
Some of those who have been CIV
ing the subject close study and have
been following the conference with
Entente representatives say they
would not be surprised if the real
foundation of a league of nations
were to be laid in cooperative ar
rangements between the United States
and the Allies for handling these
fundamental questions
Mr.. Wilson's address at the Sor-
bonne on Saturday, in which he again
defined his conception of a league
of nations, attracted closest attention
from all public men here This is
especially true Of his statement that
the war could never have occurred if
the Central Powers had discussed it
for a fortnight, and certainly not if
they had been forced to talk matters
over for more than year
L. S. Arbitration Treaties
The Presidents address has re-
called that the United States, while
William Jennings Bryan was Secretary
of State, negotiated a dozen arbitra-
tion treaties, one of them with Great
Britain. These treaties boand their
signatories to discuss their contro-
versies for at least a year before pro
ceeding to a declaration of war An
attempt was made to negotiate such a
treaty with Germany, but the Berlin
government refused to entertain it. It
is also recalled the same idea was once
expressed in plan for preserving
peace put forward by a group headed
by Viscount Bryce, former Brit
ish Ambassador to the United States.
! There is no official authority for the
statement that Mr. Wilson is think
ing of the Bryan plan as one of the
elements in the proposed machinery
for preserving world peace. but his
reference to the plan in his Sorbonne
speech has set public men to talking
Presidents Plans Developing
No announcement has been made as
to how far the conference between Mr.
Wilson, Premier Clemenceau, Premier
Orlando and Foreign Minister Sonnino
has gone, but French public men have
declared that their Premier's talks
with the President were entirely salts
factory. 1t is also believed that Nj
Wilson has made substantial progress
III his conferences with Italian states
men.
Almost on the eve of the assembling
Of the peace congress delegates, the
United States is the only country
which has definitely and officially an
nounced the composition of its dele
cation. News reports have contained
names of British, Italian, Belgian and
japanese delegates, but the French
Foreign Office has received no notitica-
tion of these appointments
The work OF the American commits
sioners viii not be delayed by Presi-
dent Wilson's visit to England. 1t Is
stated that the daily conferences will
continue among the delegates and the
corps OF specialists employed in the
various branches of the great under
taking, and also with such representa-
tives of the Entente and neutral
governments as may wish to communi-
cate with the American delegates Such
discussions will naturally be purely in
formal.
Meeting Date Not Announced
Up to the present moment there has
been no definite decision as 10 when
the conference will hold its first scs-
sions, nor is it known how many dele
gates will represent each of the Va
rious nations. The delay in arriving
at an agreement on the date for be