The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-01-20
PEACE MEET IS
RESUMED AGAIN
! TODAY IN PARIS
League of Nations Is the First
Problem Talked.
Several Plans for the Organiza-
ton Are Put Forth.
CONFERENCES Being HELD
And a Definite Plan Is Due To
Be Offered Soon.
Wilson Has % Days Yet Before
He Comes Home.
Several Plans for the OrganiZa'
ton Are Put Forth.
CONFERENCES Being HELD
And a Definite Plan Is Due To
Be Offered Soon.

Paris, Jan 2O.-As the supreme
council of the peace congress resumed
sittings today, marked progress was
being made in the business of com
pairing various plans for the formation
OF league of nations and harmonic
ing them into a unity of ideas which
can be taken up as a concrete propo-
sitIcp. Much headway in this direc-
. tion was made Sunday night at the
conference at the Murat mansion,
which was attended by Mr.. Wilson.
Lord Robert Cecil, the British repre-
sentative charged with working out
plan for a league of nations; Leon
bourgeois. the French proponent of
a plan for such an organization, ana
General Jan Christian Smuts, who has
formulated a plan for a league.
Preliminary conversations over the
structure of the league of nations are,
strictly spea king, stin in the stage of
being discussed in meetings of the su-
preme council and are not technically
before the peace congress as whole,
but the fact that the congress has ad-
NancCd this question to the foremost
place in the program is taken to indt-
cate that such progress is being made
in the supreme council as to warrant
the expectation that definite and
somewhat detailed program will be
soon evolved.
Nations Are Together.
This program, it is believed, will
pr>st mt the common thought of the
l1aucrs of the United States, Great
britain and France therefore may fur
nish a starting point from which all
the peace delegations may participate
in the work. president Wilson is per-
:onally pressing forward this one fea-
ture of the work of the peace congress
b,. rf,-t,, al oil cf all nf
WITH definite plan formed for
cro c.l1Ig u structure upon which all ma
tons can agree, there are about TWEEN
ty-.ve wui king days remaining of the
tine that President Wilson has allotted
to himself for work in France before
l-lN.nG for home The question be-
ing asked is whether he can, in this
comparatively short time, bring the
nations together in an agreement for
a society of nations. Many of the
Presidents closest advisers are rea-
sunub. convinced he can do so. They
base their opinion on what appears to
lie spontaneous developments on ex-
pressiOns indicating adherence to the
league plan by Great Britain, France
and Italy and on the assumption that,
being vii tually agreed upon in prin-
c.pie and, indeed, as to some details,
the remainder of the work, while pre-
sen, ing some perpleXities. does not Of
fer hopeless obstacles if approached in
d; spirit of accommodation and even
sacrifice which virtually all leaders
have declared in their public addresses
as beng quite necessary to a satisfac-
tory result.
With discussions now past the point
where ii seems to be agreed there
shall he no uper-sovereignty, nor
common police force and that the
question of whether a nation shall con-
tribute force in carrying out the de-
cl5ions OF the league will be left to
each nation individually in each in
stance. the general plan being most
talked about embodies an enlargement
OF the principles contained in the
treaties negotiated by William Jen-
ninSs Bryan. These provide for a de-
lay of year before declaring war
and investigation by a special commits
sion of all disputes and that no dec
larat.on of war shall be made there
after without giving certain notice
such plan. current discussion in
Farls brings out. is intended by those
VINO faNor 1t to virtually esta blish a
concert of power among the principal
nations for a preservation of world
peace. This would he extended to
what would be virtual guardianship
of the smaller nations, applyinc 70
them the principles which govern mar
ticipation in the league by their great
or sisters
BY this plan. it is apparently p1Ir-
posed 10 internationaIize the guardian
snip of smaller nations with the idea
that there shall be no domination over
them by one nation. economically or
financially. 1t is proper to state at
this juncture that President Wilson
hlmseIt mas reasonably complete
plan for the formation of a league of
nations. 1t may also be stated that he
highly regards many features of the
plan presented by General SHUTS, and
is working in close harmony with NJ
Bourgeois and Lord Robert Cecil.
Aside from the attention being paid
to the Russian situation. the society of
(CODtiOued on pora IT,