The Cordova daily times., 1921-05-12
HUGHES NOTE CAUSES GREAT
 SATISFACTION
BY COL. WINFIELD JONES

Correspondence)- The firm note of Secretary of State Hughes to the al- lies declaring that the United States denies the validity of mandates of
 the League of Nations, demanding the rights of the United States as one of the victors in the World war, and asserting the league had no right to act for the United States, has caused the greatest satisfaction in congress ,and official Washington Undoubted- ly the note was not dispatched to the allies except with the full approval of President Harding. It recalls to stu dents of the diplomatic history of the United States the old-time firmness of the republic when dealing in the past
 with foreign nations
 MT. Hughes is no believer in "wiggling and wabbling" policy, has plainly shown this belief, and has un- doubtedly spoken the wishes of the people of this country, who could
 not understand how League of Ma tions, of which the United States is not party can calmly proceed to di- vide up all the possessions taken from the Germans, without any refer
 ence to this country, when the United
 States was itself the biggest factor in that victory.
 The Hughes note is direct, to the point, could not be more forceful and it's logic is unanswerable.
 The note may be summed up brief ly, as follows:
 1. The United States, having been
 one of the nations to win the vic tory over Germany, is entitled tospar ticipate in the spells of that victory. ?. The League of Nations has no
 authority whatever to bind the Unit ed States to any distribution of the territory and islands taken from the Germans
 3. Under the treaty of Versailles
 the possessions taken from the Ger
 mans were given up by the Germans
 to the allied and associated powers"
 that won the World war over Ger many, and one of these powers, the
 principal power, was the United States.
 4. Former President Wilson never agreed to give Japan a mandate over
 the Island of Yap, and if he had the United States would not have been bound by such action simply because the United States rejected the treaty 1 of Versailles, as long as it was coupled with the League of Nations | scheme.
 In view of this extremely vigorous note there can be no turning back | by the United States now in it's | insistance that the control of the
 Island of Yap not be awarded by mandate to Japan.
 The situation is tense. Japan has insisted that she intends to exercise the mandate over Yap, though she
 may back down any day. The United States has stated in no uncertain | terms that she does not recognize this mandate. The conclusion is ob- vious. Either Japan must surrender ] the mandate, compromise must be made whereby the United States and Japan have equal rights over Tap, the island must be internationalized, or another war will occur. There can be no other solution of this situation. In a nutshell the results of the World war, as far as territorial pos
 sessions are concerned are that the United States, though it did the most and was the deciding factor in the victory, has received absolutely none of the spells. Great Britain, France and Japan grabbed the lions share,
 with small portions thrown to Italy. The United States got nothing ex- cept 60,000 dead, 300,00O casualties,
 war debt of $3O,OOOO OO0O,OOO, ten bill lion of which is still owed by the
 allies, and the hatred of the rest of
 the world, including the allied nations
 whose "bacon the United States
 saved" from the Germans when the
 Germans had the French and the
 British down on their backs in the
 Flanders mud, moaning for help.
 How different the treaty of Yer
 sailles might have been if we had had man like Hughes to represent this country at Paris. The United States at Paris missed the opportun- ity of the ages to acquire a world wide empire greater than the sun ever shone on before. Some con- gressmen believe now, looking back on
 the Versailles fiasco, that the United
 States should have demanded Canada and the British West Indies from