The Washington herald., 1921-12-04

lind S1b.
would like TO see the submarine
banished from the navies of the
world. We are reported to have
fatty refused. Americas security.
we say, requires submarines. And
II Is rumored that We may build
them big enough to go from Maine
to the Panama and up the coast to
Alaska without reoiling.
Suppose we do, we will then have
the most terrible offensive as well
as defensive weapon, poisonous gas
aside. that has yet been invented.
And TO the suggestion that we ban
Ish this deadly and cowardly war
instrument from the seas of the
world. We respond NO: we must
have it for our defense" That is,
when IL comes to the showdown
we cling quite as much as other
people to those instruments of force
which we believe to spell security.
Pleads for Understanding.
1t will be easier all around to
do the giving up which will be re-
duired IL we are to get through this
second stage of the conference
without chills and fever. II We'll all
try to understand that the nations
concerned here are swayed might
lily in the matters which are on
the table by certain ingrained ma
tional sentiments and convictions.
II England. France and Japan are
to have patience with us they must
learn to understand how much a
part OF us is our dislike OF alli-
ances and see that this part OF our
national gospel Is as ingrained as
our conviction that our isolation Is
our security.
But IL we expect the world to
have patience with our hanging
back at the doorway of the Temple
OF Peaceful Handling of World
Quarrels, we must learn to have
patience with the sentiment born
of their experience and training.
Patience With Japan.
Take this matter of Japan and
her fleet and the destroying of her
great vessels. There has been con-
siderable irritation over her plea
that she be allowed to spare one
or two of the greatest. We have
looked at IL as a proof OF her insin-
certify, an effort to evade, to keep a
disproportionate amount of naval
power; but there is a sentiment in
volved here which ] doubt II any
American can understandable feel
ing that the island nation has for
ships.
There she is, a little land all told
-Formosa and Korea Included
with a seafront OF 1900 miles. Ships
mean food, contacts. security to her.
and these monsters that she has
built with such sacrifices are the
pride of the land. They are sym
81. 49,,
symbols VS.. Tonnage.
I take 1t that Japan has some
thing the same feeling about great
ships that We have about the Mon
roe doctrine and our policy of iso-
lation. And we ask her to sacri-
fee these symbols without even a
groan. We do it, of course, be-
cause there are so few in the United
States to whom a battleship means
anything but taxes. We do not de-
pend upon battleships for safety.
To build up in this country any
thing like the sentiment that Japan
has for her feet would take a hun
bred years OF warfare, but II we
are to be fair to Japan we must
understand the sentiment We must
ask ourselves what sacrifice We are
making to match that which we are
asking of her. The world is not
ruled simply by tons OF metal. Sym
bols weigh more with nations than
tonnage. We give up our ships
without a sigh, but when Japan
scraps hers something of her heart
goes with the scrapping.
Frances Feeling for Army.
There is a situation akin to this
in France. She has the kind of
feeling for her army and a weak
Central Europe that we have for
our isolation and our Monroe Doc
trine. They are convictions in
grained by centuries of war. usual
ly defensive war; getting the Eng
lish out, keeping back the flood of
Central Europe, determined to
reach the sea. We express horror
and surprise that these two ma
tional sentiments should have been
so strong at Paris that they should
have been able to have done so
much to have frustrated the great
code that the allied nations accep-
ed there; but go over Frances bat
tlefields from that OF Attila, in the
fifth century down to the Marine
in the twentieth, and you'll have
a better basis for understanding.
There are always reasons for these
settled national convictions, how
ever wrong and unreasonable they
may seem to the outsider.
Lack of Faith.
We were irritated with France
in Paris and we have been to a
less degree here in Washington be-
cause we have had no sympathetic
understanding of the experience
which makes her so insistent or a
big land force and a weak and d.
vided Central Europe. But as a
matter OF fact she Is simply cling
ing as we are, to those things
which through her national life
she has come to believe are best
adapted for her protection.
France has been no more able
than we have to accept for her
self-preservation the principles of
security through world co-opera-
tcn. The troIN with all Of US
at bottom seems to he a lack q
faith In any agency for governing
international aft airs other than
war and its ally, secret diploma y,
and unless out Of this great con-
'erence there does C me more faith
in the sufficicncy Of an association
OF nations this conference is gong
" Oe AttIo mOre IMAM Ndsliy
stimulating and interesting dis
cussion OF certain problems.
May Lose Opportunity.
1t would be a sorry business in
deed II we went away from this
great opportunity for helping a
battered and weeping world to
stabilize and heal itself. having
done only those things which re-
quired no deep-cutting sacrifice on
the part of anyone.