The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1920-12-12
the Hague
Another of ito Anne
Handicap Of Paris Peace Negotiations Were Overcome

which we have twice taken up arms to
maintain, although, one must concede quito
frankly, we have shared in invading when
we We're at war.
Unless such course is adopted it is plain
that we must expect to be drawn into the
next world conflict we have been drawn
into the last two, the Napoleonc and the
recent German war. If the object of the
League of Nations is to prevent war, If the
desire of the United States is to avoid par
ticpation in European conflicts, nothing Is
more important than to abolish one of the
familiar causes.
And from this question of sea law the
transition to still another subject mentioned
at Geneva, namely disarmament, is easy
and inevitable. Here again we on famil-
lar ground. The United States has always
opposed the theory of nations in arms. 1t
has, through its representatives in the
Hague conferences, supported the idea of
limitation of ornaments, if not actually the
principle of complete disarmament. We are
now at a decisive point in the history. We
have to choose for ourselves between adopt
ing in conjunction with other nations some
reasonable programme of national defence
and engaging in new race.
Not for League to Decide
As to a Court of Arbitration
ManifestlS it cannot be for the League of
Nations to decide to what extent the United
States shall arm or disarm. For that matter.
ii cannot be for the league to decide the
question of a court of arbitration, so far as
we are concerned, or to adopt sea laws which
shall then become automatically binding
upon the United States 1t must be for
Congress to accept or reject the decisions
reached in any league on these questions.
But it is not less plain that the United States
is vitality concerned in seeing these ques-
tons debated and in seeing reasonable solu-
tons reached by the league and by it sub
mtted to the several nations for adoption,
rejection or modification.
There remains one more problem touched
upon at Geneva which concerns the United
States. AS result of the common effort Of
all the nations in arms against Germany
victory was achieved. Germany was defeated
and German colonies passed from German
hands directly to those of the victorious
Allies. The same is true in the case of
Turkey. BY the Paris treaties these colonies
were intrusted to the care of certain nations,
with the express stipulation that equal
treatment should be assured to all nations
VINO made war against Germany, so far as
the commercial and economic resources Of
these colonies were concerned.
But at Geneva the question was raised
that the nations who had taken over these
colonies under the mandatory system af-
fected to believe that they possessed ex-
elusive economic rights in them and were
exercising such alleged rights to the injury
Of other nations. specific instance was
afforded in the case of Mesopotamian oil and
has been made the subject of a protest by
the American State Department within re-
cent weeks. Obviously the United States Is
interested in defending the rights which 1t
acquired in these mandatory colonies
through the Paris settlement, patiently it
desires to be heard in the League of Nations
or elsewhere when the question is to be
debated and settled.