The Washington times., 1921-11-14
NIPPON 'SDREA|M
PUNCTURED BY
j. .S.PROP0SAL
Continued from First PAssJ

grafton. And the galleries above. be-
having more and more Hike a first
night audience. interrupted with
rounds of applause whenever there
We're definite illusions to disarm-
ament. He finished and declared the
conference open and departed. Mr..
Baifour followed. echoing the Presi-
dents sentiments in few we'll
chosen words and proposing Secre-
tary Hughes for the chairman of the
conference.
The hall became aware OF a check
the onward flow of the proceed
ings. An interpreter got up and re.
peated Mr.. Balfour's speech in
French for the benefit of the French
delegation. He had made a short
hand note as Mr.. Balfour spoke.
This. we learned. was to be the pro-
cedure throughout the conference.
Every speech. question and inter-
ruption was to be dealt with in this
interlinear manner. Fortunately. 1t
was not necessary to do this in the
case Of the Presidents address. nor
was 1t necessary in the case of the
address of Secretary Hughes which
was now impending, because these
had already been printed and dis
tributed and a translation made Of
them.
French Are Rather Isolated.
Their linguistic isolation is likely
to prove unfortunate for the French.
The Belgian. the Dutch. the Chinese,
Japanese and Portuguese delegations
all speak In English and listen to
the English speeches. Consequently.
the French are In a position in which
they seem to be the most foreign
people present. This must be discon-
certing to them now. 1t will be
much more disconcerting II. at a later
stage, German delegates speaking
English should appear upon some ex.
tension or side committee of the con-
ference. But 1 do not see how II
can be avoided. The French are a
little out Of touch in the conference
because Of this. they must be much
more out Of touch with the incessant
conversation in clubs and at dinner
tables and everywhere in Washing
ton. which makes the atmosphere in
which the conference Is working.
This, however. is a not by the way.
Secretary Hughes took the chair and
delivered his address. 1t was a very
carefully arranged surprise and its
effect was really dramatical. It
jumped the conference abruptly from
erto engaged 1t to Immediately prac-
tical things.
Is Carefully Prepared Scheme.
Secretary Hughes sketched what
was evidently a carefully worked out
scheme, most explicit scheme, for
the complete cessation of naval arma-
ment competition. America wanted
at the very outset, he said, to con.
vince the world that she meant busi-
ness in the conference. and 30 she
had taken this unexpected step of
putting immediate practical proposal
upon the table. She would scrap
completely all the ships she had still
under construction and all her older
ships. and she would discontinue all
naval construction for ten years. IL
Britain and Japan would do the same.
She proposed that the naval strength
OF the three powers concerned should
remain for ten years in the ratio of
Britain. %; America. Is. and Japan.
10. In other words, she proposed
so to fix things that no two of these
three powers can wage a conclusive
naval war against each other, but
with America and Britain in a posi-
ton to do 30 Jointly aga.pst Japar
and with Japan at a great disad-
vantage against America, even IL
she were to risk an inconclusive war
with America on the chance of Bri-
tain not coming in. And having un.
folded this scheme, Secretary Hughes
concluded.
Festival Air Returns.
We were a little stunned. We had
expected the opening meeting to be
preliminary, to stick to generalities.
After Secretary Hughes had finished.
there was a feeling that we wanted
to go away and think. But the men,
bers Of the House Of Representatives
were enjoying an unwonted sense of
being In gallery. quite irresponsibly
In the gallery, with somebody else
upon the floor. They burst in upon
our statesmanlike thoughts below
with loud cries Of 'Briandr'
The atmosphere Of friendly festival
was re-established. NJ. BRAND spoke
eloQuently-saying nothing whatever
about the proposals Of Secretary
Hughes-and sat down and his still
quite abstract praises Of peace were
translated into English.
''Japan" shouted the members of
the House OF Representatives, a thea
ter gallery now in full cry. Japan
spoke in English and its sentiments
were translated into French for the
benefit OF the foreigners. Japan ex-
pressed admirable sentiments and said
nothing whatever about the proposals
OF Secretary Hughes. Thereafter. II
would have been discourteous not to
call for something from Italy. China,
Belgium. Holland and Portugal.
They All Used English.
They all spoke in English, even
Belgium spoke in English, and what
they said was translated into French.
Nobody said anything whatever about
the proposals Of Secretary Hughes.
The gallery applauded each speech
heartily and the atmosphere Of a first
night was completely restored. We
dispersed to luncheons and tea parties
and to talk before we wrote about 1t.
And as we tried to get 1t into focus
in our minds, II became clear that
much more than a ceremonial open
ing of the conference had occurred.
Secretary Hughes has made pro-
posals that challenge the whole situa-
ton in the Pacific. For, II Japan
accepts thenH-I do not see how they
could be otherwise than acceptable to