New Britain herald., 1921-10-28
JAPANESE AWAIT
 !. s. CONFERENCE
Affair Proves Fruitful Topic of Conversation

forthcoming conference in Washing
 ton in a fruitful topic of discussion with ma gazine writers, and a consider able part of the current issue of the subject from various points of view. One of the articles in question comes from the pen of Yotaro -Sugimura of the foreign office who directs his at- tention principally to limitation of 9 ornaments.
 This limitation, he declares, is now universal demand, arising not so
 much from desire to tighten finan-> cial burdens as from a fervent wish l to avert the horrors of war. Mucl as this is desired, it is extremely afr | ficult of achievement, not only because | a numerical or financial scale of re- duction is not at all easy to assess l fairly, but rather it is because it IS almost impossible to fix a standard of universal application, and because | if an agreement on standard should be reached it would be of no practical use without some organ by which the
 agreement may be enforced.
 The worlds first need today. he
 says, is an effective instrument to prevent war or rather to guarantee
 peace, because with the establishment | of peace naturally comes disarma- | IIlCuC. l1c LcdS3 uS Ol ANdIlOlo AS SOOu
 as far as it goes, but it is far from l complete in that it touches only the l material side of the problem.
 l There is in Sugimura's opinion, ho
 hope of lasting peace until inter-
 national relations are regulated by the l spirit of justice and law, so that all l disputes between nations may be set l tied not by force of arms. but by an
 appeal to the law. This involves
 moral reconstruction of mankind,
 which is still far off and must neces-
 sarily be of slow growth. Therefore,
 the world must in the meantime be
 satisfied with the next best thing, and l that is according eto the writer, the
 League of Nations which he urges
 America to join in preference to her
 as yet unborn and untried Associa- | tion of Nations.
 Though in sympathy with Americas good intentions, MT. Sugimura fails to
 understand why Far Eastern problems
 particularly should be brought up for
 discussion. Trouble is likely to occur
 in any part of the world, Europe or
 South America, and yet no considera-
 tion is to be given to that. But put l ting this on one side, he says the
 most important thing is to explain
 clearly the exact connection between
 the question of armaments and that sf
 the Far East and the Pacific. It stands
 to reason that the subjects to De l discussed must be closely connected l with the plan of effecting limitation
 of armaments, and they must if
 necessary include many so-called ac-
 complished facts. It would be wrong l for instance, to discriminate territor-s
 ial rights and the rights oe spheres of, tlnf1uence. ItszWould be decidedly un-s l just to preserve the former and abolish l the latter. Rather than that, all 'ac- l cou1plished4 facts" should be recog- I nized.
 l Reverting to his earlier argument 1 that the demand of the times is for l the institution of an international au- I thority to ensure the free and un- I trammelled operation of the open door I and @ equal opportunity principle I throughout the world, to promote in- ternational competition without blood l shed and to enable all to enjoy and I share the bounties of the earth, MT. I Sugimurma holds that until the I world is ready for te establishment I of such an authority, by a higher T moral attainment, all that can be- fl expected of the Washington Confer A ence is a "gentlemen's agreement" in l which the main motive power will be < a spirit Of self-restraint on the part N of the signatory powers.