The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1919-02-08

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lHVH discussed at length the basis
Mail of French policy as express
I~l sed at the Paris conference,
IsAl indicating that the chief con-
I86J&l Germ of France was to pro-
~I security to the north against
possible new German attack.
British policy as expressed at the
Peace conference is somewhat less
simple, since it seeks various objects
indirectly.
Above all else, British policy at the
peace conference is based upon a new
Interpretation of the world by British
craftsmanship and diplomacy. One
ought to say at the outset that Britain
ia incomparably better represented at
Paris on the technical and on the dip
lomatic side than any one of the other
great powers. There are more brains
and better brains in the British delega-
ton than in any other. and these
brains are concentrated upon clear
ly thought out program.
Grasp Lessons Of War.
The lessons Of the war have been
more clearly understood by British
statesmen than by any other; they
alone realize that the relations of the
great nations have been changed. A
decisive role in war and in peace be-
longs to America, for precisely the
same reason that Great Britain held
1t so often in the past. We have come
relatively fresh upon the stricken
field. We alone are still strong, fight
ing as well as otherwise. Therefore
1t is necessary to recognize America.
British policy has accepted this sit
uation skilfully. The keynote Of the
British policy is that there shall be
no break of any kind between America
and England, that every conceivable
concession shall be made. large or
small, on the political as contrasted
with the economic phase, to the end
Ang.o-American friendship may be
placed on solid basis for the future.
Vague as to League.
In the matter of the league Of ma
tions. the thing was little more than
a vague formula, even after Mr.. Will
son had outlined his fourteen points.
At the moment when the president
came to Europe it became the mission
of the British to work out the presi-
dents ideas and give them form, to
give them conference and they have
done this. Later it will be for the
French to take hold and make them
intelligible by translation into the
French language.
But the fact that 1t is worth while
to notice now is that, recognizing that
America was committed to the league
of nations and that President Wilson
was about to make an earnest fight
for 1t, and suffer material loss of pres
tige at home If the project were not
in some form adopted at Paris, the
British have sQuarely lined themselves
up with the president.
They have undertaken to do almost
the impossible task of creating a
league Of nations. and we have had
not one, but half a dozen plans. origin
ating amongst the British statesmen,
all aiming to transform Mr.. Wilson s
idea into European machinery.
Accept Situation
If the British had not accepted Mr..
Wilson's league Of nations idea, If they
had not undertaken some part Of the
task of bringing it down from the
clouds to concrete ideas. there would
not have been much chance Of success
for that scheme at Paris; but the
British were keen enough to see, first,
ond that their own people desired it,
and third, that if they failed to rem
red substantial and necessary aid to
bring II off, they would be criticized at
home and suspicioned abroad.
Now the scheme of the league of ma
tions which the British have formu-
lated, which, with certain essential
but not numerous notifications, will
be advocated by President Wilson,
seeks to preserve certain influence in
the world. 1t is designed to serve GER
tain things in the world. Before this
great conflict came. England had
reached point of sa aturation in the
matter of imperial expansion. Her
great problem had become to preserve,
not to increase, and the burden of her
empire was more and more heavily
felt as domestic conditions foreshad-
owed complete transformation at
home.
Germany Failed
Germany struck at the moment
when she believed that both domestic
problems and imperial problems would
combine to ensure her success. She
failed; but even in her failure she
transformed many conditions; she up
set the world that had existed, and
she has strewn three continents with
ruins of the ancient systems which
must be revised.
Now the chief concern Of Great
Britain as an empire is India. India
begins at Gibraltar and at least ex-
tends to Hong Kong. To protect Ind
ia no that Turkey is eliminated. it will
be necessary to deal with Mesopota-
mia and Palestine and Syria, just as
it was a generation ago to deal with
Egypt Unless there can be some
system devised which divides respons-
ibility for the maintenance of states
like Syria and Mesopotam and Ar
menia, and strategic points like Con-
stantinople, England will have to take
most of them to protect India, or else
surrender some of them to states who
may develop colonies of their own
across the vital pathway to the Near
East.
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