The Washington herald., 1920-12-06
mo SOLUTION
In SIGHT ON
JAP CABLES
Yap-Shanghai Line Is Issue
AT Conferences on
This Week.
MANY URGE SHIP POOL
Ownership Of Seized Ger
man Properties Splitting u.
I S. With Other Nations.
MANY URGE SHIP POOL
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.
Japanese insistence upon reten-
tion of the former German cables
in the Pacific is one of the principal
rocks on which the International
Communications Conference in
Washington this week may be
wrecked.
The entire subject Of the Japan
&e mandate over the Caroline and
Marshall islands-that small but i'm
menseIy important strategic group
which is planted squarely astride
out trans-Pacifc route to the Phil
lippines-is at issue. While a COM
promise is likely to be reached with
Great Britain and France concern
ng the former German cables across
the North Atlantic. no solution is
in sight regarding the squabble with
Japan.
U. s.-Britain-Frnnee Settlement.
1 am Informed that the settle
ment under discussion for disposal
of the Atlantic cables. is roughly
as follows: The line running from
Penzance to Halifax, to which point
one of the former German cables
was diverted when the British cut
the Emden- Azores end of it. is to
remain in British possession Cheat
Britain in return may be- called
in cl n inns
with regard to German shipping
driven into American harbors in 1914
by the British navy. =. The German
cable which the French secured in
August. 1914, and the European end
of which was relaid at Brest Is
thence forward to be under some form
of Franco control. The
United States is able to insist upon
concessions from the French with
more vigor because the cable in
question runs from Brest to New
York. Ours government can thus
withhold or grant the landing-rights
essential te -maintenAuce of the
Iline. The western terminus of the
fline Great Britain holds lis in Brit
ish North American waters, viz.
those of Nova Scotia.
4
II the proposed compromise with
u the French line is adopted II will
provide for An extension of the ca
bre from Brest to Northern Europe.
probably Holland. That would in
sure America the restoration of
Iservice with Central Europe that we
trequire. The service would be reg
uIated by France and the United
II n g a
Isitua tion in the Far East that con-
jures up a genuine snag. The jap
anese are pleading that under the
terms of the league mandate over
Germany's mid-Pacific islands, the
municipal law of Japan comes au-
tomatically into effect there. That
law, il is claimed by the Tokyo gov
ernments delegates at the WASH
ington conference. strictly forbids
any but Japanese subjects being
connected with telegraphic commu-
nications within Japanese domains.
1t prohibits Japan, it Is contended,
from even sharing control of cable
lines passing Japanese. territory
with any other country or nationals
of any other country.
Ynp-Shanghni Line Involved.
The cable in controversy is the
line which runs from Yap, the east
ernmost island in the Caroline
group, to Shanghai. Up to Yap.
across the Pacific the United States
has a cable of its own, running from
San Francisco to the Hawaiian
islands and passing Guam. We are
therefore dependent upon the Yap-
Shanghai line for cable communi-
cation with China. There also Is a
separate cable from Yap to the
island of Mindanao, in the Philip
pines.
That line, too. under the mandate,
fails under Japanese control. The
United States is making a vigorous
fight for some arrangement that
will relieve us of the disagreeable
necessity of reaching the Far East
by cable under Japanese censorship
and surveillance. o..
| Before U. S. Entered the War.
Great Britain. France and Japan.
in resisting Americas claims to a
right to participate in the distri-
button of the German cables, set up
the contention that the cables were
captured two and a half years be-
fore the United States entered the
war. Our position in retort. of
| course, is tnat thougn they were
seized while America was neutral.
they could hardly have been kept
except through allied victory which
we helped to achieve. The British.
/ French and japanese. too. maintain
that IL the former German cables
are to be pooled as we say they
ought to be-then the hundreds of
thousands of tons of German ship
ping which were driven for refuge
into American waters by allied ma
val forces before America entered
the war ought to be pooled, too.
The strategic aspect of the Jap
cable situation, however. is the one
that gives US the most concern. 1t
may be that the Japanese are bent
upon utilizing it for trading pur-
poses in connection with their pend
ing negotiations with the United
States. The Mikado's government
knows that it is valuable pawn.
and, Judging by the demeanor of its
delegates in Washington thus far,
it will not cheerfully or easily be
surrand derPd