The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1920-12-03
FRIDAY. DECEMBER 3, 1920.
AN NTPORTANT PRINCIPLE.


There has been an exchange of dip
lomatic notes between the governments
Of Great Britain and the United States
on the question of mandates. The state
department wrote the first note in which
| the position was taken that this gov
eminent would not assent to dispositions
Of territory which did not keep the door
open for equal opportunity to all ma
tons. wherever it might be that manda-
tory powers were exercised. It~was prob
ably thought advisable to send such a
note in view of the fact that several dis
positions had been kept secret until some
time after they had been made, and the
exercise of mandatory powers had been
undertaken. 1t happened that this gov
eminent had not been informed officially
that Great Britain had been allocated
to take care of Mosopotamia, within
whose territory there are great oil wells.
That this territory was taken over de-
signedly by Great Britain for the pur
pose of controlling its oil supply was, of
course, not intimated in any way in the
note sent by the state department. Dip
lomatic courtesy would forbid the i'm
.
putation of an Interior motive, though it
may possibly have occurred to per-
sons connected with the state department
that there was something quite significant
about the connection of the Mesopotam-
ian oil supply with the British mandate
for NIesOpotamia.
1t appears that it has occurred to
others outside of the United States that
there may be some significance to this
connection. From Paris has come a
report that the diplomatic exchanges be-
.ween the United States and Great Brit
ain really involves the future mastery
If the seas through the control of future
oil supplies. The state department semi
officialy, has denied that it was think
ing about the oil supply of MesopOtamia
when it formulated and dispatched its
note to the British government 1t was
thinking about the principle of the open
door but the abstract principle sooner or
ater has to be referred to some concrete
Tart and it is just as we'll for the United
States to get the principle satisfactorily
-cttled now, because it can be applied
to oil in Mesopotamia, if it so happens
that the United States wants some of it
according to the principle, which the |
United States is trying to get fully es-
tabIshed, the United States will be able
to secure a much-cOveted article on equal |
terms with every other nation.
There was some making up of faces |
in England at the first note of the state |
department. The ministry observed the |
proper official decorum but in some or
gans of opinion. it was quite frankly /
suggested that the United States had |
forfeited whatever privileges it might |
have had in Europe by its refusal to ac-
cept any responsibilities. In so many |
words, we were told to mind our own bus
mess.
The United States has not been in
vited to accept a mandate for Mesopota-
mia. 1t is stated that the United States
government will firmly adhere to the po-
sition that its rights are not limited by
the peace treaty, and that it has as much
right to say what shall be done in man
date territory as the allied powers of
Europe. Naturally this question. in
wolves the question as to whether manda-
tories are to be employed for exploitation
by the nation to which mandatory con-
troll is assigned. In the mandatory
clauses of the covenant of the league of
nations, it is expressly stated that there
shall be equal opportunities for the
trade and commerce of other members of
the league" 1t is not stated that those