New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1921-09-28
Disarmament and the East.
H. N. Brailsford.

both is cordial and affirmative, but that
does not prevent US from realizing that
one OF the two conferences is serious
politics, and the other is not The Far
Eastern conference may succeed or it may
fail: it may greatly improve Anglo-Ameri-
can relations, Or it may destroy the hope
OF lmproYe rnent but whatever its issue, it
is, Sat any rate, a frank invitation to face
realities. tt is based on the sound COM
mon-place that policy governs ornaments.
That maxim the other conference ignored,
and few of us expect that it can have
any positive result, good or bad. To be
sure, if the three chief Far Eastern Pow
ers, who are also the three chief naval
Powers, should reach an agreement to
limit or reduce their fleets, the general
conference may extend it to the world
at large That would be merely matter
of drawing differences and adapting for
mulae. ''The sea is one'' as the experts
say, and Far Eastern naval agreement.
would involve, would even potentially be
a worldwide naval agreement. France,
with her naval ambitions consigned long
ago to the safe-keeping of her historians
and Italy, with her pressing need for
economy, would be glad to .countersign
anyapact to check the growth Of naval
armaments. S ess
gTheadificulty is on land. The settle
ment OF Paris created a definite European
system, based upon certain alliances and
antagonisms. That system, inherently
untenable and unstable, has it's inevitable
expression in the conscript armies of the
Allies which have survived the peace.
The physiognomy of Europe is fixed by
the tWitching nerves that betray the
universal suspicion. Here are the French
on the Rhine, restlessly seeking occasions
to push. forward, under the pretext OF
''sancti for breaches of an impossible
Treaty, destined to be broken again and
again. The Poles, spilling their surplus
armies across frontier that cannot hold
them, now into Wilma and again into
Upper Silesia, spend the intervals between
these adventures in predicting the renewal
of their Russian War. The. Little Entente"
masses it's forces to prevent the return of
a Hapsburg to Hungary, probes the depth
of Intrigue to discover whether the ex-
Emperor enjoys French backing, and
shudders as it notes how imperfectly it's.
own recent accessions OF. territory are .ce-
mented to it's centres. AS write, the
diplomatic seismograph records tremor
from Sofia, and the official inspirers of the
press half reveal and half conceal some
supposed Bulgarian plot for the recovery
of !Thrace. The British fleet is mass7d
to prevent the approach of Turkish ar
mics to Constantinople, while the Greeks
pursue their offensive in Asia Minor. Ont
accords to the suggestion that Europe
should disarm, the tribute of a sigh, bue
one knows too well that this inspiration
can be realized only when the political
settlement itself is revised.
That is no part of Mr.. Harding's plan.
Indeed, the invitation itself, confined as it
is to the principal Allied and Associated
Powers, tacitly perpetuates the system OF
Versailles. It would be easy to sketch
in advance the speech which M. BRAND
will make to the conference. 1t will open
with a moving picture of the anguish on
invaded France. It will remind America
and Great Britain that the guarantee
treaties Of alliance have never been ratified.
1t will dwell on the moderation Of NJ.
Clemenceau in renouncing the Rhine
frontier. It will conclude with a declara-
ton that France, left to- her own defen--
slve resources, must keep them at their
present level, as an insurance against fresh
invasions. The speech will sound plausi-
BILE only to those who forget that French
armies hold the bridge-head Of the Rhine,
ready to pour their troops at any moment
into an unresisting Germany, that her
peace establishment is now eight times
that of her beaten foe, who lacks more
over a general staff, big guns, aircraft
and organized reserves, and finally that
Poland, with an army that outnumbers
Ger1nany's by six to one, stands ready
to back her French ally in the, East
FraY1ch ornaments GRO IF course dnfansivo4