The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1921-11-19
PRESSURE OF
PEOPLE BACK
HOME IS FELT
Public Approval of Hughes
Speech in Foreign Countries
so Overwhelming Delegates
Carried by Tide.
NO FRICTION APPEARS

by MARK SULLIVAN

ents here is Col Repington, author OF
the famous war diary, who writes for
the London Daily Telegraph Col.
Repington began his dispatch on Fri |,
day with the words, This conference |
is so replete with infinite impossible |
tiles that it is not safe to conclude !
that our opinions of today will be !,
those Of tomorrow
Col. Repingtons use OF the word /
'impossibilities" reflects on his part
an underlying skepticism which Is
shared by a few of the other British
representatives here. 1t ought to be
added, however, that this skepticism
is not antagonistic 1t is rather the
state of mind which We in America
describe as waiting TO be shown"
But the main point that Col. Reping
ton makes about the rapid changes
from day to day, and even from hour
to hour, is about the most conspicuous
thing here. | have the feeling, and II
think most of the newspaper men
share it, that while we write the thing
as it is, it frequently turns out that
the situation has progressed several
furlongs by the time it is printed.
IF this makes the recording of
events difficult, it is also true that it
makes it easy, when you look into
the situation closely, to put your fin
ger on the fundamental trend which
determines these shifting details.
Effects Spreading
What is happening Is this: The eff
fects of Hughes opening speech are
still spreading like giant waves over
every corner of the earth. That
speech is stimulating a response of
such proportions that when it comes
back here it causes the delegates from
all other countries constantly and rap
idly 10 change their point of view in
the din of greater assent to what
Hughes wants
Not only does it cause them to show
an increasing disposition to identify
themselves completely with Hughes
point of view on armament, but also,
further than that, it causes them TO
be increasingly disposed to accept
whatever Hughes wants on the far
east subject and everything else.
Powerful Effect
The public approval of Hughes
speech in foreign countries is of such
an overwhelming character that it
has had something of the effect of a
force of nature.
When its echoes roll back here the
representatives of foreign countries
are unwilling to seem even in the
faintest degree to be standing in the
way of it
This leads them to a degree of
abandonment of their original posi-
tions, and a degree of hurried assent
TO the Hughes program that may al
most have disadvantages, even from
the American point OF view
1t makes you sometimes wonder
whether the only danger in the
Hughes program may turn out to lie,
so to speak, in the excess of its sue
cess. If things continue TO go as they
are, the Hughes program will go
through without even those desirable
notifications. which might arise from
the clash of different viewpoints
Changes His Mind.
You see one of the foreign represen-
tatives on, let US say, a Tuesday. and
he tells you that never. never will his
country recede from such and such a
position on the Far East. You see him
again on Thursday, and he acts as if
he had never heard of the view he so
deeply held on Tuesday.
AS American politicians hear from
the grass roots, the Japanese are hear
ing from the rice fields, and the Brit
ish from the coal mines. The japanese
dare not go home. and the British dare
not go home with a record of having
done anything that would seem even
in the faintest degree to imperil the
Hughes plan on armament.
incidentally, it is not merely from
their peoples that the foreign delega-
tions are hearing, but from some OF
their most responsible statesmen as
Well Some Of the messages carrying
Of ont T.,
the Hughes plan that have come over
the cables during the past few days
will make pungent reading when his
tory gets around % them
The thing that Hughes said is the
thing that the peoples of the world
want They have taken Hughes for
their leader. and their own statesmen
and delegates are streaking for the
tall grass. even some who have been
TOR notifications of the Hughes plan
which would be reasonable to Consid
er
Armament Plan to Go Through
The end OF it all will be that the
Hughes program will go through That
program viii be the adoption of the
armament plan already announced
without material notifications. Wher
adopted, il will be submitted TO the
senate independently ana apart iIDi
any Far Eastern agreement. In this
Independent form the senate will adopt
II unanimously.
As to the Far East, the Hughes pro
gram probably will turn out TO be ar
agreement so informal, and otherwise
OF such nature that it will not neeC
10 be submitted TO the senate.
AT least il will not be in such a form
N o1 oh II
alliances. The American program OF
the Far East will probably turn out Il
be a process of taking the ten re
quests already made by the Chinese
of agreeing upon them, or at least up
on nine-tenths of them, by all the gov
ernments; and the carrying out O
this agreement. without any forma
document of such a binding natur,
that the senate would have to ratify
il. In short the American plan prob
ably will avoid senate complications
Copyright 1921 by the New Yorl
Evening Post. Inc.