New-York tribune., 1921-11-13

assume certain responsibilities. Mr..
Hughes is now asserting the right Of
The United States to be considered in
the adjustment Of Asiatic affairs. But
the inevitable and the inescapable con-
comitant is that we shall undertake
certain responsibilities. We may not
guarantee the frontiers Of China, as
the Senate believed the League Of Ma
tions Covenant gave our guaranty for
the boundaries laid down at Versailles,
but we must share largely in the un-
dertaking to make China q reality.
If one conceive that ten, twenty or
thirty years from now China, assisted
by the United States and Britain, will
become national fact again, then our
labors will not only prove to have been
profitable, but will be automatically
terminated. But if there is to be q
China at all, it will not suffice to call
Japan off, and it will not be possible
to keep Japan off permanently without
some other step. And that step means
degree Of ENHANCEMENT in Asia. It
is the price that will be inexorably de-
manded of us, and the price which We
should rightfully pay.
Title Of Japan to Special
interests Must Be Admitted
. Mr.. Hughes can only succeed in his
present undertaking provided he is pre-
pared to recognize Japanese title to spe-
cial interests Of all sorts in Manchuria
and Mongolia and ready to join in some
form of partnership with Japan and with
Britain in the rehabilitation Of China.
Any form Of partnership-and do not
mean by that military alliance OF naval
bargain, will remove all reason for the
existence Of the Anglo-Japanese alli-
ance. But to get to the subject Of that
Anglo-Japanes alliance he has got to
proceed logically through the chapters
which relate to China.
Mr.. Hughes will full just as Mr.. Will
son did, if he lays stress on distractions,
on his points. He will fail if he under
takes to deal with the Washington con-
ference as case against Japan. Within
certain limits pretty well defined every
one knows what Japan is ready to con-
| cede-and from. the Japanese point of
view it is an unholy amount. But in
the same way every sensible person
knows what Japan will not concede
and, from Mr.. Hughes's point of view
it is not inconsiderable.
Mr.. Wilson discovered that If the
Freedom of the Seas meant the elimi.
nation Of British sea power, then he
must either scrap the point or take his
way back to Washington without q
league. Mr.. Hughes will find that if
( the integrity of China means China
from Siberia to Siam, motion to ad-
journ will necessarily be in order. And
/ think he has already discovered that
| China is not fact but condition, not
something primarily to be preserved
but something which must as a prelim-
mary be recreatcd.
believe that in the last analysis
successful outcome Of the Washing
ton conference is not only possible but
reasonably probable because / am sat
isfied that the American people do not
want war and are not prepared to so
to war to establish the northern from
tier of China at the Siberian line in
stead of at the Great Wall, and be-
cause I am satisfied that the Japanese,
gravely disturbed by the present pre-
dicament in which they find them
selves, are prepared to make great con-
cessions and under British influence
may make even greater sacrifices than
they have yet conceived possible.
Abstract Principles May Be
Converted Into Realities
| But do not believe any satisfactory