The daily times., 1921-07-12
AMERICA TO HAVE
!. IMPORTANT PLACE
IN DISCUSSIONS
ENGLAND WANTED MEET
Success of the Disarmament
Conference Depends Upon
the Readiness of the Powers
Involved to Agree Upon a
Program of Peace to Remove
Sources of Friction.
(By David Lawrence) .

! Copyright 1921 by The Daily Times)
| Washington, July 11.-Diplomacy
moves in strange ways it's wonders to
perform, and the various steps that
have led up, to the calling at last of
disarmament conference of the ma
and Associated powers are a peculiar
mixture of sensitiveness on the one
hand and hesitancy on the other to
assume responsibility for the success
of admittedly one of the most diff
cult international problems of mod
ern times.
Great Britain has from the start
wanted disarmament conference as
a means Of reducing her tax expense
but she was faced with an element
that looks askance at the mere men
tion OF reducing the size of the Brit
ish navy and also the British govern
iment found itself more or less bound
to go along with Japan because of
the delicate matters involved in the
lAnglo-Japanese alliance. A proposal
by England would have to be second
ed by Japan.
Now the situation has been some
fwhat reversed. A great point is made
lof the fact that the President of the
United States issued the call for
disarmament conference. England is
mot in the position of having forced
sc
told she was eager in private to have
America make the move and she has
managed to maneuver things around
so as to go into the conference with
out any especial responsibility for
i compelling agreement. 1t is one thing
ito call the conference and quite a.
mother to sit in that conference as
mediator with a certain degree of
lmediating interest in what is going
on. The United States becomes more
or less the arbiter in the discussion,
and Great Britain would prefer to
have it that way.
! That is not all however. Tied up
with the disarmament problem is
something else besides naval ex-
penditures. 1t touches the whole
realm of international peace-the
league of nations as an instrument
for preservation of peace in the alb
sence of large ornaments or some
lother international body able to ac-
complish a similar result. Then, too,
! there are the big financial question:
the payment of war debts-which
sooner or later touch the disarma-
, ment problem.
: America as disinterested nation
and similarly as the creditor nation
/ of the world, with a big navy and
; with no special interests or ambi-
, tions except the peace of the world
: is counted upon as a greater moral
force in disarmament conference
} than ever before. There have been
, international conference on arma-
ment questions before. The subjects
l were discussed at the Hague as well
as at the famous London conference
4 of 1909 but no single power had then
as much influence as the United
States has today. This, of course, is
because of the way the United States
Z used her power in the world war
unselfishly and disinterestedly.
VI The success of the disarmament
r conference called by President Hard
r ing doesn't depend upon formulas
s but upon something entirely different
e ei-the readiness of the powers involV'
ed to agree upon program of peace
i that will remove sources of friction
and possible war. Everybody admits
e that the chances of war in Europe
are remote for a generation to come
!. the financial and physical re
n sources of Europe are too near ex
: haustion for anyone to rattle the
g Isabre. But there are war clouds II
t the P-eific. Japan and the United
CONTINUED on page 81