The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1921-08-10
Frederic Haskin's Letter
The Disarmament Conference.

7 sentative of the American rovsr,
ment at the disarmament confer.
ence.
In effect, President Harding bss
taken the nations of the world as
being but people in a small com
munity-peop.e who have from The
dawn of time been pickering AM
fighting and stealing from each 9th
er, encroaching on each others Iots
breaking each others windows ana
. refusing to pay the grocer on tho
corner for what they eat. MANY ~
them are in the position of havinr
borrowed from rich peipbbo,
and now finding that they cannot
meet their notes.
II neighbors IN a village acted ,s
history records the actions Of ma
tons, they would be thrown into
Jail or ridden out of town on a ferro
rail. In the past it has been the
universal custom Tor nations
strong and rich. to overpower and
make subject to them their weaker
neighbors. Nearly every c;yiliza-
ton has spread itself by conquest
and arms. Had Germany and its
allies won, the old story undoubted-
ly would have been repeated.
A thousand and one separate In
terests will have to be moulded and
shaped toward a common end when
the disarmament conference meets
England will look with dread upon
any movement which would deprive
her, an island power, of the ire
mendous naval force she now pos
Sesses. 1t is Unborn in the British to
regard their navy as the great fac.
tor of British safety. But British
taxes are very heavy, and British
debts to America are so huge that
the representatives of that proud
nation have not scrupled to suggest
the forgiveness of this debt By the
United States.
France, trained to the habit Of
thought that her natural and heredi-
tary enemy, Germany, lies just over
crushing defeat, will make strug-
crushing defeat, viii lmake a strug-
gle against giving up or materially
reducing her large standing army.
Japan Plays Her Game.
From Tokyo the hints at obstruc.
ton of the purposes of the confer
ence are multiplying at the mere
invitation to take part in it. First
Japan wanted to know the exact
scope the discussions at the con-
ference would have, and did not
want the Pacific question brought
in at all. This was in effect politely
refused, and Japan practically had
to come into the conference Just
the same.
Baron Sakatani, member Of the
Japanese House of Peers, is credit
ed with a recent interview bearing
on the subject, some parts OF
which are remarkable in that they
throw a light on the sort of thing
the Japanese people are being given
to read. He is credited with saying
that if the disarmament conference
reaches an impasse between Japan
and America it will be because each
is suspicious of the others motives
and intentions with respect 10
China. II is limited even that japan
might suspect America of imperial
designs of her own in the far east
How utterly ridiculous this is It IS
to say.
The situation is not altogether
without its lighter elements. There
is now in Washington the Tepresen-
tative of the ruler of one of the
smaller nations to the north Of
India. This ruler and his father
before him have been held virtually
10 England and their ma
ton under British domination
through the annual payment Of
large sum to the ruler from the
british treasury. This payment was
omitted last year, and the ruler
was so upset that he is seeking to
establish diplomatic relations
with the United States. It means
that he wants America to subsidize
him, in return for which America
presumably would get special treat
ment which would be to her ad-