The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1921-12-06
Who Is Going To Disarm
BY FREDERICK J. HAsKIN

WASHINGTON, D. C., Dec 6-That
the disarmament conference has be
come a contest, in which each of the
nations represented is striving to gain
some relative advantage in naval and
military strength over the others. is
now apparent TO all who have closely
followed the proceedings.
Furthermore, it is no surprise to
those who understand the nature Of
the gatherings No nation is going to
disarm as long as the cause OF inter
national war remain unchanged. for
the simple reason that they are bound
TO cause war again. \ certain saving
in taxes is the most that can be eX-
peCted from the disarmament phase
Of the conference. Its consideration
on the Far East Question, on the other
hand, may be regarded as the nearest
thing to a sincere attempt which mod
ern diplomacy has ever made to
remove causes Of war. Whether the
attempt will have any success at all
remains doubtful
France is coming in for great deal
of criticism because OF her refusal 10
reduce her standing army. which she
dS0FI 10 0llt uttuo ~ DIbttCt IlE /
against Germany and Russia l. has
been pointed out repeatedly that both
of these nations are incapacitated for
an indefinite length of time. France
is accused Of employing sOphistrjes
TO establish her right to a large
array
So. il appears. She is. and so are all
the other nations. Her standing army
is all France has She possesses nc
strength on the sea where she is out
claSsed by three other pOWerS-Eng
land, the United States and Japan
Each Of those nations is trying to gel
out Of the disarmament conference
some advantage in naval armament
Japan stands out resolutely for a rate
which will leave her relatively
stronger than she was before the
conference. She brings forward the
sophistry that her peculiar position
makes necessary this extra strength
The Submarine Question
England stands out for reducing the
submarine to the lowest possible
status Hemmed in on her little island
Great Britain is more menaCed by thy
submarine than by anything else. /
nearly starved her during the wal
1t IS capable of making the transpOr
tation OF food and material from he
colonies almost impossible. On th'
other hand. it is not important to tht
/ defense of her short insular cOas
line. Hence large submarine flOtilla
and the development of the submarine
/ are the greatest menaCes to England
. She is in favor of almost aboishini
submarines She also comes forWar'
with her little sOphisr!es. What
horrible thing submarine warfare Is
The United States is not so impre-
sed with this horror. Submarines ar
extremely useful on the defense OF
long coast line like ours. We are i
favor of a rather large supply Of sui
marines. Furthermore, the genuine
ness of our desire to disarm was pu
to the test. il seems. when poison ga
was mentioned. 1t was suggeste
that poison gas be eliminated altOge
her from international warfare, as tn
most horrible weapon Of all, and tn
American delegation demurred. It
said that our War department has tn
formula for the most destructive Ga
on earth, and that in the next wa
it Will be our strongest asset. Al
We going to throw il away? We shout
say not,
All OF this is no criticism of anvOnJ