The Chattanooga news. [volume] (Chattanooga, Tenn.) 1891-1939, 1919-08-19

doing all that we can to mitigate
the winters suffering, which, un-
less we find means to prevent It,
may prove disastrous to a large
portion of the world, and may, at
its worst. bring upon Europe con-
ditions even more terrible than
those wrought by the war itself.
Nothing. l am led to believe,
stands in the way of the ratifica-
tion of the treaty except certain
doubts with regard to the mean
ing and implication of certain ar
ticles of the covenant of the
league of nations; and must
frankly say that l am unable to
understand why such doubts
should be entertained. You will
recall that when had the pleas
ure OF a conference with your
committee and with the commit
tee OF the house of representa-
tives on foreign affairs last
March, the questions now most
frequently asked about the league
of nations were all canvassed
with view to their immediate
claritication. The covenant of
the league was then in its first
draft and subject to revision. It
was pointed out that no express
recognition was given to the
Monroe doctrine, that II was not
expressly provided that the
league should have no authority
to act or to express a Judgment
on matters of domestic policy,
that the right to withdraw from
the league was not expressly REQ
ogniZed, and that the constitu-
tional right of the congress to
determine all questions of peace
and war was not sufficiently
safeguarded. On my return to
Paris all these matters were
taken up again by the commits
sion on the league of nations and
every suggestion of the United
States was accepted.
Nothing Vague or Doubtful.
The view of the United States
with regard to the questions l
have mentioned had, in fact, al
ready been accepted by the COM
mission and there was supposed
to be nothing inconsistent with
them in the draft of the cove
nant first adopted--the draft
which was the subject of our
discussion in March--but no OBJ
lection was made to saying ex-
plicitly in the text what all had
supposed to be implicit in It.
There was absolutely no doubt
as to the meaning of any one of
the resulting provisions of the
covenant in the minds of those
who participated in drafting
them, and 1 respectfully submit
that there Is nothing vague or
doubtful in their wording.
The Monroe doctrine is ex-
pressly mentioned as an under
standing which is In no way to
be impaired or interfered with by
anything contained in the cove
nant and the expression regional
understandings like the Monroe
doctrine" was used, not because
any one of the conferees thought
there was any comparable agree
ment anywhere else in existence q.
or in contemplation, but only be-
cause it was thought best to avoid
the appearance of dealing in such
n document with the policy of a
single nation. Absolutely MOTH
ing is concealed in the phrase.
. Not Only Nation Interested.
With regard to domestic ques-
ttons, Article XVI of the cove
nant expressly provides that IL,
In case of any dispute arising
between members of the league,
the matter involved is claimed
by one of the parties land la
found by the council to arise out
of matter which by interna-
tional law is solely within the
domestic jurisdiction of that
party, the council shall so report,
and shall make no recommended
tion as to its settlement" The
United States was by no means
the only government interested in
the explicit adoption of this pro-
vision, and there is no doubt in
the mind of any authoritative
student of international law that
such matters of immigration,
tariffs and naturalization are in
contestibly domestic questions
with which no international body
could deal without express au-
thority to do so. No enumeration
Of domestic questions was under
even by sample, would have in
volved the danger of seeming to
exclude those not mentioned.
Taken for Granted.
The right of any sovereign
state to withdraw had been taken
for granted, but no objection was
made to making it explicit. In
deed, so soon as the views ex-
pressed at the White House con-
ference were laid before the COM
mission 1t was at once conceded
that 1t was best not to leave the
answer to so important a ques-
tion to inference. No proposal
was made to set up any tribunal
to pass judgment on the question
on whether q withdrawing ma
tion had in fact fulfilled "all it's
obligations and all