The New York herald., 1921-07-08

have to be cancelled.
Our Rights Are Our Rights.
The League of Nations intriguers
are always itching for chance to
trap this country into some compro'
missing situation with their covenant
They have been no less artful than
eager to picture the technical advan
tages that are promised in negotiat
ing a German-American treaty under
the Versailles Treaty.
Now, the surface comfort or the
easy opening for some sharp trading
that would develop in following such
a course might be fair question.
But when anybody goes so far as to
declare that any of our natural
rights, interests and relations with
Germany can be set up and main.
tanned only by sufferance of the pro-
prietors of the League he overshoots
the mark wildly. This is exactly
what the propaganda in the New
York Erening Post does when it
treats the American public to the
following:
"The cheerful talk about negotiat-
ing a new treaty of amity and COM
merce with Germany omits an i'm
l..
free to negotiate any sort of treaty
of commerce that she may feel like
negotiating. Germany is under mort
gage, so to speak, to the Allies.
THE Allies can permit Germany
TO do just as much or just as little
in the way OF a treaty with the
United States as seems expedent to
the Allies"
If, for one example, this were Sc
as to cable landing rights on German
territory still in the possession and
under the control of Germany II
would have to be so as to cable land
ing rights on former German terri
tory now no longer in the possession
and under the control of Germany.
But both Mr.. WILSON'S Secretary of
State, Colby, and Mr.. HARpING's Sec.
retary Of State, HUGHES, have brill.
iantly and masterfully challenged
that contention in the case of the
Island OF Yap, now claimed under
such "war mortgage" bonds by
Japan.
France, one Of the four principal
Allies, has frankly conceded the force
of the American denial. Italy, an
other of the principal Allies, has
concurred. Great Britain, still an.
other, has not dissented. And when
these Powers are measured you have
about covered all the dimensions OF
the Allies, the League of Nations and
the Treaty of Versailles put together.
More than that: The State De
partment Of the United States Gov.
ernment has met the British Govern.
ment on all fours in the matter of
the latter Powers war mortgage
on the Mesopotamian oil fields. The
experienced and sagacious Foreign
Office of the British Government has
not been so green as to make the
shallow rejoinder that its war rights
take precedence over our war rights,
gained side by side on the battlefield
as co-sharers of the war results. The
wise old Foreign Office of Britain has
set UP the at least debatable defence
of mot guilty" 1t submits that the
British Government has not done any
of the things complained of in the
manner complained OF. There has not
been a whisper out of Downing Street
or any official source in England
about war mortgage" supremacy.
We-have some war mortgages our.
selves. They are first mortgages
along with the first mortgages of any.
body else. Not a single one of their
has been cancelled, merely because
we did not mortgage the United
States to the League of Nations and
the Treaty of Versailles. They ali
stand.
We have, as well, some underly
ing pre-war mortgages which, in the
vernacular common to such affairs
90 ahead of any second mortgages
posterior in time and in law and in
common sense to the original and
all determining indentures.
Nobody has ever been clearer and
stronger and more uncompromisinp