The Washington herald., 1921-12-07
SECRET DIPLOMACY
CAUSING TROUBLE,
SIMONDS DECLARES
Muteness on Americas
Policy Starts Riot of
Propaganda.
By FRANK H. SIMONDS.


When 1t is quadruple entente?
II you will ask this question
slowly and answer IL rapidly. you
will approximately arrive at the
situation as Washington is saying
1t today. But saying, to be sure.
is not believing.
What is most disturbing about
the present situation is not that
there is any general belief that Mr..
Hughes, with Mr.. Hardings's CON
sent. has committed the United
States to some new form of an old
evil. but that for the first time the
opportunity for others to speak for
America has arrived and been seized
upon.
Sometime last week some kind OF
a tentative bargain or agreement
or proposal was passed upon in
some fashion by those whom we.
following the not wholly unhappy
precedent Of Paris. called the "Biy
Three" AS to the existence of this
statement there is general agree
ment. Now. since that time this
experiment. this trial balloon. this
scrap of paper, the term does not
and tangible shape in the general
discussion. outside of the confer
ence.
Cannot Define IL.
One may say. with a degree of
authority which. as the current
phrase has II. zone is not permitted
to disclose" that this agreement is
not what London and Tokyo affirm.
not what natives Of London and
Tokyo sojourninC in Washington
declare. that il is not an alliance.
not a commitment. above all that
il is not IAN entanGlinP alliance"
What il is not possible to say now
on any American authority is. ex-
actly or approximately. what the
thing is
In other words and II seems to
me the fact is all important. Amer
lean diplomacy which before the
conference. while conceding that it
could not properly undertake to
disclose the positions OF foreign
governments in the session, as
serted that it could and would keep
the American people. in touch with
the American policy and purpose,
has temporarily renounced this
course and Mr.. Hughes has adopted
in Washington the course which
Mr.. Wilson followed with such IA
tality in Paris.
Result IN Simple.
The result has been simple. We
have had American policy inter
preted in precisely the terms which
would best satisfy certain Euro
pean nations and would be most
calculated to arouse American pro-
test and above all to awaken pro-
test on Capitol Hill. No thoughtful
person believes that there has been
undertaken any new treaty of al
lance, yet everyone has now to
confront definite and specific state
ments that the United States. in
return for certain specifc advan-
tages, such as the acceptance of the
naval ratio. will join with Japan,
Britain and perhaps France, in
guaranteeing certain things. such
as the integrity of China, literally
interpreted. to be sure.
Now, accepting the fact that
there has been an agreement of
sorts. il is still totally outside the
known purposes of the President
and the Secretary of State that
any agreement should commit the
United States to anything beyond
the recognition of the rights of
others and the promise to respect
these rights. plus the pledge to
play fairly in the matter of ma
val restriction and. in the matter
of Pacific island fortifications, to
observe a holiday without end.
impossible and Unlikely.
Four powers, the United States,
Great Britain, Japan and France.
could each affirm such a purpose,
the Congress of the United States
might be expected to assent to sucn
a proclamation o. policy, but this
is something quite different from a
promise to join in a quadruple en-
tente. which might replace the eS-
listing Anglo-Japanese alliance, and
undertake the regulation Of the Pa
cific or the defense Of China.
1t is possible for the United
States to sign the pledge. but IL
is both impossible and unlikely that
the United States should undertake
to enforce prohibition. political not
spirituous, II is understood, beyond
its own territory.
1t is conceivable. as is strenu-
ously insisted upon, that one oe-
tail in the agreement. Article Ill.
some assert with amazing explicit
ness, notes that the Anglo-Japa-