The Washington times., 1921-12-02
BIC THREE ARE
NOW TAKING Up
GREAT ISSUES
Politicus Feels u. S. Must Watch
Carefully or America
Energies a Loser.
By POLITICUs.


The arms conference has now reach.
| ed the stage where the big Three"
are bargaining behind closed doors. II
| therefore behooves every American to
put his hand on his watch and to lar
up the family silverware.
When the Versailles conference
reached this stage, America lost
everything that was not nailed fast.
In Paris. the Big Three were Wilson,
Clemenceau. and Lloyd George. When
the last two got through with Mr..
Wilson. they had sold him q dead
League of Nations and had walked off
with all the spoils. Germany had
left on the battlefields besides a lot
Of things. such as Egypt and Shan
tung.
Messrs. Hughes, Balfour and Kato.
The French have vanished. The jap
snese have moved up a point. But
Mr.. hughes task Ia just as difficult
as -. Wilson's was. Mr.. Hughes
has one advantage. He has no League
of Nations for whose acceptance he
Is willing to sacrifics~the sovereignty
of the United States. But Mr..
Hughes has given heavy hostages Tor
the success Of the conference. It's
failure would be a severe political
blow to himself as well as to the Hard
ing Administration. Both Mr.. Ralfour
and Baron Kato know that. They
win be none the less stubborn on that
account. They are here to drivf. hard
bergains and they will do so. When
II comes to such bargaining In secret
sessions, the Anglo-Japanese organi'
zation has a decided advantage over
the benevolent Mr.. Hughes.
Operate In Sessions.
The Big Three are operating In two
sets OF committee sessions. In the
first we have them laboring to obtain
a settlement of the $50 ratio. The
Japanese are making a great deal Of
noise to have this increased to 5-b.Sla.
1t is not that the half point is so
vital to Japan's existence. 1t Is the
trading position that counts and
Japan intends to get its moneys worth.
II II abandons that half point, II
will get paid for 1t. An extra battle
ship would mean little to Japan In a
world naval holiday. The Japanese
know that. But they are not in the
anita Claus game. They are not
making sacrifices for nothing. IL they
finally abandon their pretensions to
an extra SO 900 tons of warship ton
mage. they intend to get something for
1t that will be worth whole navy.
There is the northern half OF the
island OF Saghalin for instance. 1t
belongs to Russia. The Japanese
look upon 1t with covetous eyes. IL
they can get Mr.. Hughes and Mr.. Bal
four to give them a quit claim deed
for this Russian property, the scrap
ping Of an extra battleship will be
a small price. Maybe. they will be
even luckier. By clever trading they
might make their battleship worth a
lof Of IN
tung and Manchuria. They still claim
lot Of treaty rights" in both prov
inces.
Anything that japan wants at the
hands of Messrs. Hughes and Balfour
will have to be reckoned to the credit
of the Midado's representatives In the
other session in which the Big Three
are operating. That session is the one
to which the Chinese have been in
vited. There Messrs. Hughes and Bal
four are using their good offices to
gether. In the Tgyst session, the cards
are stacked against the United States.
In the second the disadvantage lies
with the poor Chinese.
History May Repeat.
Unless something unexpected hap
pens, history will repeat itself. The
United States and China got the
worst Of II at Versailles. The United
States was a little lucl<ier than the
Chinese. because its people had re-
served the right Of veto and they used
II to put the treaty on the scrap heap.
The Chinese tried the same thing, but
their rejection Of the treaty Of Yer
sailles left Japan Just az firmly en-
trenched as ever in Shantung and
Manchuria.
Now the Chinese are pointing out
the deadly parallel between Versailles
and Washington. Chinese students
are picketing the Chinese head
quarters in an expressed fear that
Wellington Koo. who participated in
the failure of Versailles, will again
be run over by the Anglo-Japanese
steam roller in Washington.