The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1919-02-07
IDEALISM AND OLD
DIPLOMACY CLASH
AEPARIS COUNCIL
lC6ntInuea FrOm BIS Page.l

chose to take the French or the British
view. What is Of importance Is the
fact that British policy has decided 10
support this Arab commitment and has
pitched itself formally on that part OF
Mr.. Wilson's II points, watch demands
self-determination for small races and
peoples.
Now the fact Of the case seems to
be thai, left to themselves, the ma
Jority Of the Syrian people would not
choose a French protectorate. They
would seek some form or independence,
guaranteed by one or more protecting
nations. Therefore II will be seen that
the present British policy, which would
excludea France from Syria, falls In
with President Wilson's policy: bat, for
the French at least, there is a suggeS-
ton that the presidents principles have
pulled the British out OF a bad hole,
and bid fair to exclude the French
from Syria.
Old Chiefs Busy.
Given this material 10 work upon,
II is easy to see how the professional
diplomats of the old order would bur
row and dig and mine and manipu-
late. and they have done it, and from
n quarter therefore, we have an in
sistent whisper that the French have
become chauvinistic, and from another
still, the relatively old whisper that the
British have remained hypocriticaL And
out of exactly this sort Of mixture
grows the impression one gathers over
and over again in the American press,
that the Paris conference Is after all
a gathering place of the old reaction
airy apotiatoTs and diplomats who, be-
bind a facade of idealism, are doing the
same old thing in the same old way.
This, after all, is a part of the Syrian
mess.
But it. is worth recalling again that
the Paris conference is very like an
American political convention-that just
as all party bosses used to gather and
still do gather, just as political bar
gains Of machine character are dis
cussed and contemplated, these things
happen in Paris. Yet, more often than
not, and always when public sentiment
is awake, a convention, In spite of ma
chine politicians, who. have the appe-
tite, but no courage, nominate good
tickets and adopt good platforms, and
side by side with all this bargaining,
Of which the Syrian episode is an eX-
ample, one can feel and n can count
on an infinite number of cases In which
the claims Of the old sort, greatly
pressed in the beginning, are being
modified or abandoned. Practical prin-
ciples are being formulated which, If
they are adopted. as | believe they viii
be, will in the future limit exactly the
evils of which | have spoken.
Evidence at Hand.
You may believe in Paris and find
evidence to support the belief, that
nothing has been changed In European
diplomacy and methods since the days
of Machiaveli or Metternich. and you
may find proof of it in a score of ques-
tions OF which the Syrian and Adriatic
problems are perhaps the most impress
sive. You will find many people i'm
pressed by these things to the extent
of believing that the faint of the old
order runs through everything in tho
umes of testimony will go back to
America that nothing honest or real
can be expected in this Paris atmos-
phere.
But by contrast It has now become
reasonably certain that the people OF
Syria will be permitted to decide their
own fate, which never could have hap
pened at the congress of Vienna or at
the congress of Berlin. 1t rs becom-
ing fairly clear that all the little poll
ticians with their petty bargainings are
going to miss the big prizes and that,
In a word, things that they are working
for are not coming off.
The bargain which the British made
with France, and then abandoned to
sell the same goods to the Arabs, does
not express the present spirit or EN-
per of the English people; nor do ! be-
lleve Tor a single moment, that the de-
mand made by certain sections Of
Frenehmen In the matter of Syria eX-
presses the real character OF French
spirit at the present day.
| do not see much difference between
the French and the British aims in
this respect, except that the British
have been fortunate enough to fortify
their policy after the event by the fact
that IT falls in with the new principles,
But the big thing seems to me first
that the Job isn't going TO be done. and