New Britain herald., 1921-11-08
HARVARD PAPER
 HAS JAP WRITER
Ambassador Shidehara Tells Of
 Naval Armament

Cambridge, Mass, Nov. S.-What- ever the problems of the armament conference, an agreement for linita- tion of naval armament ought to a comparatively simple matter" says Ambassador Shidehara of Japan, one of that country's delegates, writing in the current issue of the Harvard Crimson.
 The ambassador bases his state ment on the conclusion that the war left only three great naval power each on different continent and with none of the real interests of one conflicting vitally with the others"
 At the same time the ambassador takes opportunity to outline Japan's case at the arms conference, her re- lation to China and the far eastern situation, as well as her place in the world.
 He writes:
 "The Japanese delegation come to the Washington conference confident that the nations assembled there will achieve a substantial measure of suc- cess and that valuable understandings will result, enabling the several prin- cipal nations to live in future with less suspicion and distrust, and con- sequent armament. This is the least that can be expected But we Japan csc are hoping that, as President Harding said at Yorktown on October 19, The time has come when there must be recognition of essential CO., operation among nations, devoted each of them, in it's own peculiar na- tional way, to the common good, the progress, the advancement of all hu- mankind
 We Japanese are primarily con- cerned, as America is, with limita- tion of naval armament, and it is on this matter that I speak with Contl- dence. What agreements can be reached for the limitation of land forces is more difficult for me to cs- innate. But as far as the seas are concerned an agreement ought to be a comparatively simple matter for the obvious reason that there are but three great naval powers left i'll the world and that each of them be- longs to a different, continent separ- ated from the others by a great ocean, and with none of the real interests of one conflicting vitally with the others For these reasons it seems to me that only a most arbitrary at titude on the part of one or an- other country can defeat the main purpose of the conference, and none will be arbitrary, for the peoples as well as the governments of all three mist earnestly desire agreement.
 'There is an unofficial, I might say, public, American point of view that any agreement must be contingent upon settlement of Far Eastern problems and to some Americans those problems seem greatly involved and fraught with possibilities of grave danger It is hardly within my prov ince as the representative of another government to point out to any Am ericans how needless is this alarm, but as your president has invited us to an open and frank discussion, and as the Crimson has left me free to say what I will, I am sure it will not be taken amiss if I point out the lal lacy of such contentious as have been launched in the United States by the doubters and by the comparatively few actual enemies of an understand ing.
 Intelligent and well informed naval men in every country know that the great war left the United States proper absolutely unassaiiabla. No power in the world is i'll d position to attack your country withoue bringing grave distress upon itsAf. For more l than one hundred years you have lived without a hostile foreirn soldier within your borders, and today no | nf ton in Europe would Hare attack you even if any had the will to do so. | Yet Europe is only 5000 miles away | wtile Japan is twice os far.
 But the Eaiters of Japan arc nof | content with that argument. They | declare that Japan could take the | Fhillipine Islands. Tn the same cate eo,y they could incluGs Hong Kong | and the extensive British possessions in East Asia, and also French Indo China and other European posses sions in the Pacific. But, as a matter of fact, these various Eastern poS sessions of Western nations could be