The New York herald., 1921-11-16
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1921.
England and Japan Accept the
Great Challenge.

Great Challenge.
The American challenge for peace
has been accepted as magnificently
as it was uttered. The replies OF
Mr.. BALFoUR for Great Britain, Baron
KATo for Japan, Premier BRIAND for
France and Senator ScHANzER for
Italy made yesterday an occasion
scarcely less historic than Saturday,
when the American Secretary Of
state spoke the words which, as Mr..
BALFoUR says, "have gone round and
round and found an echo in every
quarter of the civilized world
Even though it was known that
Great Britain would accept, at least
in principle, the proposal for whole
sale scrapping of ships and a ten
year holiday, the speech of assent by
Mr.. BALFoUR added much to the good
spirit of the great decision. In one
respect the chief of the British dele
CATION went further than the Hughes
plan, for he asks for more conser-
vative limitation of submarine ton
mage. His suggestion that provision
should be made to prevent the disin-
tegration of shipyards during the
long holiday is not repugnant. That
is subject which each nation must
think on. Ten years from now, If
the spirit of to-day lives, there may
. t,.t ft,fr1 not
idle navy yards. The world may
have settled down by then to the in
definite enjoyment of the conditions
which America has pointed out as
possible and necessary.
Such details are trifles which may
disappear under the benevolent ero-
sion of time. To-day the big things
count: honesty OF purpose, national
self-sacrifice and a genuine desire to
ease what Mr.. BALFoUR termed 'tho
labors and difficulties of peace"
Later the experts, under the eyes OF
the statesmen, may deal with the
minutie of tightening the worlds ar
NOR. What is important now is that
the three naval Powers upon which
the gaze of the world was fixed have
promised to throw aside tremen-
dous part Of their war burden.
And what is still more important
is that this casting away of super
armament is agreed to, not after
what Mr.. HUGHES so aptly called
"the circumlocution Of inquiry" but
as the result OF what Mr.. BALFoUR
Yesterday described as "a blow, a
shock of profound surprise" which
excited the sort of emotions we have
when some wholly new event springs
into view" The work of the confer
ence has progressed so splendidly be
cause it had a great, human, world
wide impulse and because it proposed
10 do, at once, something which the
whole world can understand.
The speech of Baron KATo is all
that might be expected from the con-
servative representative OF a con-
servative court. 1t must be read in
the light of the ambitious naval pro-
gramme which Japan has been carry
ing on. Baron KATo, while making
the expected declaration that Japan
must have "such ornaments as are
essential to its security" announces
that his country is ready to proceed
with deliberation to a sweeping reduc-
ton in her naval armament" More
than that, while not in so many
words asserting to the 5-5-3 pro-
gramme. Baron kATo disclaims for
his people any intention of rivalling
America or Britain in naval strength,
or Of preparing for offensive naval
armament.
Surely the world is getting some
where these days: somewhere along
the path of sanity. 1t Is getting there,
not as the outcome OF the activities
Of an intricately organized superstate,
but as the result of the clear vision
of statesmen who realize that,
with nations as with individuals,
example has more power than ex.
hortation. Leadership does not con.
sist in talking about leading, but in
going ahead. In the case of the pres.
ent conference Providence gave to the
United States fine opportunity and
this country has taken advantage OF
il. Thanks to the vision OF the Presi
dent and Secretary HUGuEs, America
Las opened what Mr.. BALFoUR 81
handsomely calls "a new chapter in
the history of world reconstruction"
x.,.. ~ -