The daily times., 1921-09-20
WILL STAGE FIGHT
FOR ADMISSION Of
PRESS At MEETING
PREPARE RESOLUTIONS
1t is Remembered the Failure
to Admit the Press or to
Keep Definite Record of
Paris Conference Resulted in
Disputes Which May Never
be Settled.
(By David Lawrence. }

Copyright, 1921, by The Daily
Times.)
Washington. Sept. 19.-The fight
TO have the press admitted to the
forthcoming conference on the Linn
itation of Armaments and the dis
cussion of Far Eastern questions has
begun.
Senator Harrison of Miss, Dem
Republican, are working together ov-
er the draft of a resolution to be in
troduced in the Senate when Con-
gress convenes on Wednesday calling
upon the American delegation to use
it's influence to have the newspaper
men admitted to the big conference.
Indications from the White House
heretofore have been that the confer
ence would be secret and that the
various governments concerned
would give out their own versions of
what takes place. The resolution if
adopted by the Senate would pledge
the American delegation to work not
only for the admission of the press
but for the keeping of a stenographic
record of everything that is said at
any meetings at which the business
of the conference is discussed.
No such record was kept at the
Paris conference when the Big Four
met and there are disputes today
which probably will never be settled
as to what was said by each of the
representatives of the government in
yolved. When the Council of Ten
was in session, secretaries were pres
ent but they only took notes and
wrote condensed summary after
wards of what had been said. In no
sense was it a complete record of
the proceedings, nor was it offered as
such The entire zap dispute has
grown out of the faulty record kept
in the meetings of the Council of
Ten when it was averred President
Wilson gave his consent to the Jap
duSSS plOpOSdl. uS lIlIuuIco VI lnS
meeting fail to present the entire
conversation in which Mr. Wilson in
sists that he explicitly dissented.
Senator Harrison declares that his
fight for the admission of the press
is not a partisan affair and that Sen
ator Borah as well as other leading
Republicans are just as much inter-
ested in seeing the newspapermen ad-
mitted as are the Democrats. 1t is
realized, of course, that the rules of
the conference will be made by all
the powers when assembled but on
the other hand the aim of the SEN
ators behind the Harrison resolution
is to have the American delegation at
least champion the cause of open
diplomacy. Then if the conference is
a failure, it will not be said that the
United States delegation was to
blame for failing to keep the confer
ence in the open SO that public opin-
ion could prevent the representatives
present from taking such arbitrary
positions as blocked agreement.
The whole trouble about publicity
in connection with every internation-
al conference is that when the press
is excluded, the blame for failure or
the responsibility for obstructive tao
tics is never disclosed. The alibis are
still being offered for various agree
ments reached at the Versailles con-
ference. Thus far there is every in
dication that the Washington confer
ence will be managed on exactly the
same lines as the, Peace Conference,
that is, the press will be excluded
and the officials of each government
will tell the press afterward what
they ought to print in order to as
sist each national interest. The Eu-
ropean governments have always had
a hold on their press and have been
able to inspire the writing of edi-
CONTINUED on Page 3D.