Arizona republican., 1921-12-10
DELEGATES TO SIGN
 AGREEMENT ON FOUR. POWER PACT TODAY.
Text Of Nev Treaty Provides For Abrogation
 or Anglo-Japanese Alliance And Cooling
 Off' Process Should War Be Threatened On Questions Arising OUer Pacific Islands
TRepubIIcan A. P. Leased WIre1

WASHINGTON, Dec. g. = The United States, Great Britain, Japan and France have all agreed in prin- ciple to the four-power treaty pro- posed as a substitute for the Anglo Japanese alliance.
 The next step, an agreement on specific terms, is regarded among the pIenipotentiaries as only a question of hours. IL is to be followed by an early plenary session of the arms conference at which the new inter national concord will be formally an- nounced to the world.
 Already, the task of drafting the treaty into final form is well ad- vanced. The text is brief. providing in direct terms. for abrogation of the alliance and for "cooling off pro- cess should war be threatened over questions of the Pacific islands
 The details yet to be settled. are said to involve only minor considera- i sion. It is the expectation Of some c< the delegates that the coming pie- nary session will see a publicly an- r1ounced agreement between the United States. Great Britain and Ja- nan on the "5-5-3" naval ratio Ja- nan has not yet assented to it, but her cabinet is sitting in Tokio with an apparent prospect of favorable action. A third element of the Washington negotiations, the separate parts or which have become inteItwined as the time for momentous decision S6r- rives. also has been advanced to roiut where the attitude of each in seressed delegation is well understood This element involves future fortifi- cations fin tn Pacific and official dis ruSscn of it has established the status u,ao as an acceptable basis of agree uent-
 There remains only the chance of . serious controversy over the prob- tenls of China as possible barrier 10 far-reaching understanding Tn which the national spokesmen can some together on all the major points st issue here. With the sealing of such an understanding, the rest would become a matter of detail Most of the principal delegates be- ueve they could go home by the end of the year and leave the specific terms of the several remaining agreements to be worked out by spe- ciai commissions.
 Indications have not been lacking that Japan might want to delay fina action on the four-power treaty and the naval ratio until the devious nroblems of China and the Far East - be Jumped into a general round -uI agreement. Despite much talk ant the adoption of many resolutions sucf questions as Shantung and the Japa' nese leases in Manchuria remain un' settled Whether that circumstance is to delay the negotiations near tt consummation is a question that oni, Tokio can answer. It is the beief Washington that it will not.
 Out-croppings of the old trouble of the Orient have been apparen more than once since the question a new deal for China came befor the conference. At today's sessio of the Shantung negotiations, Japa agreed to give up the public utili lies of Kiao- Chow, but made the con cessfon conditional on reference some points to Tokio. A Chimes delegate pointed out that, althoug nou1inally, the conversations ha made much progress. strings hay been tiedp to almost all the deci Sions.
 Confronted thus by the claims ( Japan and constantly conscious
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