Evening star., 1921-08-11

when the disarmament conference
meets in Washington in November We
will see as an actuality the nations
of the earth meeting in the open. 50
that the peoples of the earth may be
constructively present, at least, and
so that the public opinion of the .Nari-
Gus countries of the world will be table
to affect that conference and direct its
will in behalf of all the people"
The foregoing statement is prelimi-
nary to general effort which un-
doubtedly will be made later in the
autumn to persuade the executive
branch of the government. that the
United States at least ought TO ao-
vocate open sessions. The writer
has been given the views of mem
ber of the American peace commission
at Paris. They are based upon his
own experience and read as follows:
There must be reasonable degree
of publicity. I do not believe the dis
be open to the public. Representa-
tives will not talk freely under such
conditions. but the public of all the
world should get, day by day, brief
official statement of the propositions
under discussion and the final conclu-
sions of such propositions. In this
way, the public of each nation VIII
know in general way the character
of the propositions that have been
made and will have an opportunity
make known their views.
1T may easily happen that ma
tional representative in a conference
may object to some proposition and
block the whole proceedings OF the
conference because of this. believing
in good faith that his views are those
of the nation he represents. But IL
also may easily be that when the mass
of the people of his nation find that
his attitude is standing in the way
of the realization of their hopes they
may make it known that they are
quite ready to accept the proposition
rather than have the whole thing
fail.
More than that. any attempt at iron
bound secrecy is bound to fail, and
it will fail by reason Of the action of
the governments themselves. Eacn
government, in order to influence its
own people, may allow to leak out
just\ as much of the proceedings as
it thinks will influence its people in
the direction in which it wants il t.
be influenced. In European councils
that were pledged to secrecy that
course was pursued whenever one
another government thought IL de-
sirable.
'.The only one that did not do 81
was the American government, and
as a result sthe latter generally suf-
fered. 1t is not a wise thing for a
man who is guided solely by a sense
of honor to enter into an agreement
based upon honor with men whose
over their sense OF honor"
In the last paragraph lies the key
to the whole situation. II the ses-
sions OF the conference are open to
the press, it is contended, the diplo-
mats will not talk frankly and the
conference may progress slowly. IL
they are not open to the press, each
government representative will send
home his own impressions colored by
his own political fortunes. and there
will be no way for the people abroad
or in the United States to check up
on the accuracy OF the statements.
Each government will have !ts own
press representatives. through which
propaganda will be issued. ard one
or two governments already have
paid propaganda agents on the Job
already.
Copyright. is2l-)