Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1921-12-17
STRIVING TO PULL
OUT MONKEY WRENCH
THAT FRANCE THREW
CONTINUED from pnRc


Admiral Baron Katos statement wns
calculated 10 place japan In the most
favorable light possible. The Japanese
Marine Minister said In part:
"The agreements which the several
nations have reached will meet With
opposition in only few unimportant
quarters In japan. japan az n whole
will rejoice in them as completely. n
not actually more fully, than any
lothcr country In the world. Unless the
spirit OF Japan were entirely in ac-
cord with that OF the other great
nations that will participate in the
| Naval Treaty, this agreement could
not have been reached. II has been
reached in substantially the form In
which Il was proposed by the United
states and after less than Ave weeks
OF discussion. These extraordinary
circumstances show how unsound was
any pesslmism that prevailed before
Mr.. Hughes made his historic speech
90 November 12 and how unfair was
the charge OF delay in view Of the fact
that his drastic proposals came as
complete surprise to all the other
| nations"
| A spokesman for the italian dele
CATION declared today that Italy came
to this conference prepared to further
the cause OF rmament limitation. and
not to hinder It. lie said quite few
plain spoken words. among them be-
Ing these sentences:
France asks for an increase in her
naval status. Italy says we under
lstand that reduction of armament Is
the object Of this Conference Right
here and now / want 1t known that my
nation believes that the American sug-
gestions should be carried out In spirit
We OF Italy know that the United
States could have the greatest navy
In the world and the greatest army
too, II she wanted It; she has the
money. But America has something
else than money; she has ideals. We
are in accord with those ideals
I'VE want the world to know that
we have our ideal, too After the war
on the very day that the armistice
was signed, to be exact, italy started
sending foodstufrs TO her former
anemy. Austria Word came that the
hlldren were starving in Vienna w,
gave of the little that we had w,
) showed our spirit. I state this no
boastfully. but so that our position
! may be understood
I'VE have reduced ours land arTna
\ nents. And we have scrapped tn
CLANS for four $1,000 ton vessels tina
. would have been giants Of their kind
We have done all this because Italy 4
rot militaristic. We came to this Con
o ference asking only an equality will
I France in naval armaments w
, want nothing but our safety guaran
q teed. But we do not want 10 get tha
. equality by having to bufld NOR
. lbattleships We would rather nave tn
j. equality come another way-th
: Hughes way. II you Will"
This much is certain today tn
ratio OF France and italy must
finally and definitely settled before tn
: three other powers concerned in III
arms agreement sign their. names {
u any document. II was thought sev
eral weeks ago that that, stage ha
n been reached, but these late develor
u ments show what may happen befoT
q the pact Is sealed. The contention {
n, the British spokesmen is that III
lie ratio OF the three great powers wi
W be thrown out of alignment II anothe
Is natIon-France for examples a
N lowed TO build almost an entirely ne
10 fleet. That would complicate matter
le in many quarters. France Is TO
id brought to terms by using the lever
age-or the spanking-Of publ
N opinion.
? 1t is known that the powers will
p prepared to take action of some kir
IN If any nation not in the pact star
- building a huge navy--Russia or Gel
) many. for example. Such action Is NJ
!. improbable before the proposed tel
> year period runs out. Should such
a one nation armament race be starts
- i; was declared that the powers wou
meet and consider what action wou
- - be taken to prevent world dominate
= by the outside nation.