The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1921-12-31
FRICTION ABSENT
President Says Stories In
volving Him and Hughes
Are Utterly Silly"
DENIES JEALOUSY
Z OR ENVY EXISTS
Close and Complete Har-
mony in Work Looking
To Arms Agreements.

1lTCuI1Sldnllal slOlles inolCdtlns
that there was friction between Presi-
dent Harding and Secretary OF State
Hughes as n result of developments
in the armament conference came I'm
for sharp denial last night.
President Harding authorized the
statement that ne considered the re-
port utterly silly" Other Official
sources characterized IL in even
stronger language of denuncistion.
An administration official declared:
Vanity and selfishness and pride Of
ten lead to strange relationships,
but there Is none Of II in the present
situation. There Is neither envy. nor
jealousy, nor friction, between the
President and his chief Cabinet off,
GER Neither is there the slightest
OF 2 lack of confidence be-
tween the President and his chief
Cabinet official The tw6~e working
in complete and close harmony"
Incidentally Secretary Hughes con-
ferred at length with the President
at the close of yesterdays session
of the naval committee Of the confer
ence and later lunched with him. The
President was well pleased with the
report made by the conference chair
man. especially when he learned that
an agreement had been reached on
the proposal to limit all auxiliary
ships, other than capital craft and
aircraft carriers. to 10000 tons each
and their armament to eight-inch
rifles.
Success Not ImperiIed.
In this connection the following can
txxa r.H L. -.
American view OF the status OF the
conference. ..[t.
The President does not consider
that the success of the conference
has been inperiled or impaired
through the failure to reach an sgree-
ment on the Limitation of submarines.
1t would be untruthful to say that
the President was not disappointed
over the failure of the conference 10
agree on the submarine question. But
this does not in any way argue
against the ultimate success of the
conference. There has been a COM
plete agreement reached on the linn
ioation of capital ships. There has
been an agreement reached whereby
the tonnage OF auxiliary craft is lin
tied and their armament reduced.
There has been material progress
made on the Chinese and Far East
ern problems.
II nothing more shall be accom-
plished what has been done must
be considered a very notable sue
cess and to have made history.
But the conference still is in prog-
ress. Until it shall have finished
its work 1t would be presumptuous
n - 70 To-,
American people, and the people of
the world. will have reason TO b,
well satisfied with the beginning
made when the conference reports
all that it has done for appraisal
View Generally shared.
That is understood to be the view
not only OF the President but of
all of the members of the admin
istration. Senator Lodge, of the
American commission. called on the
President just before yesterday's
Cabinet meeting. On leaving he
said that it would be impossible at
this time to hazard a guess as to
when the conference would con-
clude its work. Everything possible
is being done to hurry il up and
II.
Senator Lodge told the President
that further consideration of tho
proposals to make any violation of
that reafirmed principle of inter-
national law requiring stoppaee.
visitation and search of merchant
ships before they can be sunk by
submarines actual piracy. and of
prohibiting the use of submarines
as commerce destroyers. has been
indefinitely postponed. This was in
order to allow the Japanese, French
and Italian delegations to report to
their governments and to receive
instructions.
Return of Rhine Troops.
1t was stated in administration
circles last night that the Ameri-
can troops on the Rhine are beins
brought home in groups of 500 on
every returning transport. This
will continue until most of them
are home. There will be no re-
placements from now on. The ques-
tion of leaving a very limited num-
her in Germany for moral effec<,
as urged by France. remains unset
tied. When the number gets down
to about 1.uee the PRESIDENT ana
Secretary of War Weeks will con-
slider whether there will be a few
left or whether all are to be
brought back home.
Incidentally 1t again was con-
firmed that the only American rep
resentative at the coming Cannes
conference will he Ambassador Har-
veytand he will simply be an un-
prejudiced observer.
The question of the reduction of
the land forces of the United States
still is undecided. The President
will take this up later on with Sec
retary Weeks. but for the present
II Is understood he sees no reason
for any hurried action.
conference Success.-
That the arms conference already
Ia a success was the chief note in
a statement issued last night by
Senator Walter F. Edge, Of New
Jersey. Even IL IL has not scored
100 per cent, he said, 1t has per-
formed very material world service.
Co~tirped on Pess Three.