The Washington herald., 1921-10-23

take our advice and accept our pol
icies II, viii benefit; that we are ASK
ing nothing for ourselves and pre-
pairing something which will be for
the common good. And Europe.
acutely. morbidly conscious Of the
lack of adequate insurance and the
inflammable character Of its East
ern establishments. finds upon in
quiry that we have not the smallest
intention OF extending any guaran-
tees against loss, II our fire spreads
to their precincts.
Have Little to Oner Europe.
As for Mr.. Harding and. Mr..
Hughes, their situation is horribly
restricted by reason of the char
acter of the fight made upon Mr..
| Wilson by their party. They can
not agree to any compromise which
would recall the Shantung affair.
They cannot agree to any alliance
which would not refuse all the old
| ghosts and specters of the league
Of nations Tight They cannot even
agree to recompense European ma
tions for their support by q cancel
lation of the war debts. In n word,
they can OFFER nothing but platonic
friendship of the stoniest platonic
character. 49,
The japanese, on the other hand,
can and will be prepared to make
proposals and at the same time to
indulge in threats. They can offer
all sorts Of attractive rewards, II
Europe stands by them, and, what
is Of vastly more Importance. they
can discreetly and automatically
but none the less successfully play
on the unmistakable approximations
of the European powers, whose ne
cessity to avoid real trouble with
Japan Is as clear to the Japanese
as to themselves. .. e..
Farley VIII Bring Clash.
One of the worst features Of the
whole situation is that while the
Japanese as a people are acutely
alert to what the Washington con-
ference means, see It as a clash be-
tween the American and Japanese
policies, see the formers policy as
threat, an open challenge to their
own very existence, and are pre-
pared to back their Representatives
American public sentiment IL ON the
whole hardly awake to the moment
Gus issues involved and Is still In
clined to look upon the whole AFFAIR
as little more than a DISCUSSION of
the Limitation of naval expendi-
lures and possibly a further re-
duction in armies the world over.
| Japanis wide awake and deadly
in earnest. She will hesitate at
nothing and she has many cards In
cards than Mr.. Hughes could have
were his country equally alive to
the situation and equally united as
to policy But his best cards have
been taken from him by the force
Europe collectively or any one of
the several European countries in
dividually an alliance. He cannot
pay in money or In guarantees. e.
U. 8. May Face War or Betrayal.
As a result, at the critical momen,
there seams to me very grave
danger that the United States will,
to its surprise, discover that Eu-
rope is standing with Japan and
not with US and that we shall be
called upon to, accept or reject an
other Shantung compromise, which
means. to put the thing brutalIy, ws
shall have to choose between war
and a new betrayal of China. I dc
not mean that Europe would sup
port Japan in case OF war, ON the
contrary, believe that sooner or
later the British would appear on
our side. but in a diplomatic con-
test and up to the moment OF war,
fear of japanese reprisals directed
against their Asiatic establishments
would outweigh any advantage to
be obtained from the American rep
resentatives and--even II obtained
subject TO later rejection by the