The Washington herald., 1921-06-11
League of Victor Nations.


To the Editor. The Washington Herald:
If recent news from Washington
is to be believed, we are about to
assist in pushing the world back
into a system of international re-
lationships based on the uncon-
trolled dominance of a few great
powers. Surely nothing less than
this can be spelled out of the re-
port that President Harding's "in-
formal feelers" concerning interna-
tional disarmament also represents
his first steps toward the promised d
new association Of nations. and
that the said association is to take
the form of an adaptation and ex-
pansion OF the supreme council Of
the allies.
Tendencies toward such a course
have appeared in the supreme coun-
Gil itself. and grave warnings
against it have been uttered from
time to time by men like Lord Rob
ert Cecil and others. What these
men have feared was that our
withdrawal from association with
our former allies might give the
reactionary forces in Europe an ex-
cuse to undermine the league oy
building up the supreme council.
That the United States might re-
turn with the direct purpose OF
using the supreme council to kill
the league was an idea which prob
ably never occurred to them.
II is an idea that becomes the
more preposterous the more it is
analysed. Not only does it repre-
sent a situation opposed to the de-
sires of an overwhelming majority
Of all nations. whether already in
the league or still outside. but il
represents also a direct reversal Of
the one tangible statement so far
made by the President in regard to
new form of international co-op-
GRAFTON. In his inaugural address
the President declared that mani
testify the highest purpose Of the
league of nations was defeated in
linking it with the treaty of peace
and making il the enforcing aency
of the victors of the war II this
be his chief objection to the league,
what is then to be said of the SUI
preme council or of an association
growing out of it?
The supreme council was and re-
mains essentially a war institution.
II made the treaties that mark ed
the end of the war. II still exists
for the sole purpose of supervising
the enforcement of those treaties.
1t is by reason of its origin and
purpose inevitably one-sided and
partisan. designed to sustain the in
terests of one group of nations
against those of another group. 1t
can hardly be disinterested without
falling the purpose for which 1t was
created. An association directly
sprung from II must necessarily
partake of the nature Of the parent
body to an extent far exceeding the
similar predetermination of the
league.
The issue at stake here is one of
vital importance not only to US, but.
in even greater degree. to all the
smaller nations of the world. Their
principal objection to the league at
the outset was that it represented
to too great an extent the power
of a few great nations. The fear
voiced by them from the start was
that the league might he made to
serve the victorious treaty powers
rather than humanity What caused
them to put these fears aside was
the possibility, contained in the
covenant, of the leagues develop
ment into a really democratic insti-
tuition. What did most to reassure
them was their experience at the
first assembly meeting last Decem-
Der, where. in spite of all apparent
concessions to the emergencies Of
the moment. the smaller nations
proved their ability, within the lin
its of the league, to check any
tendency to dictation evinced by the
great powers.
This. then, Is the organization we
are asked to discard in favor OF one
that must necessarily represent
lapse into conditions much worse
than those prevailing before the
world war. when the very rivalry
of two groups of great powers OF
about equal strength gave the
smaller nations a chance. however
precarious. to maintain their rights
and preserve their Independence.
Now there Is no such balancing OF
force against force. The rivalry is
ended. One group remains in un-
contested supremacy. The one
chance of the smaller nations is to
pnite against this group. For as
sistance in the development of this
chance, they have looked to us-the
one great power in ahe world cred