The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1921-07-12

L
means of reducing her tax expense, but
| on the one hand she was faced with an
| element that looks askance at the mere
mention of reducing the size of the Brit
| lsh navy and on the other hand the Brit
| ish government found itself more or less
bound to go along with Japan because of
| the delicate matters involved in the An
glo-Japanese alliance. A proposal by
England would have to be seconded by
Japan.
Now the situation has been somewhat
reversed. A great point is made of the
| fact that the President of the United
States issued the call for disarmament
conference. England is not in the posi-
| ton of having forced the issue though if
the truth were told she was eager in pri-
vate to have America make the move and
she has managed to maneuvre things
around so as to go into the conference
without any especial responsibility for
compelling agreement. 1t is one thing to
call the conference and quite another to
Slt IN that conference as mediator with
certain degree of mediating interest i'm
what is going on. The United States be
comes more or less the arbiter in the
discussion and Great Britain would pre-
fer to have it that way.
Whole Question OF Peace
That is not all. however. Tied up with
the disarmament problem is something
else besides naval expenditures. 1t
touches the whole realm of international
peace-the league of nations as an instru-
ment for preservation of peace in the alb
sence of large ornaments or some other
international body able to accomplish a
similar result. Then. too. there are the
big financial questions-the payment of
war debts-which sooner or later touch
the disarmament problem.
America as a disintcrested nation and
Lon
world, with a big navy and with no spc- !
cial interest or ambitions except the peace !
of the world. Is counted upon as a greater ,
moral force in n disarmament conference !
than ever before There have been inter !
national conferences on armament ques- /
tons before. The subjects were discussed |
at The Hague, as wei as at the famous |
London conference of 1908, 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 |
used her power in the World war-un- |
selhshly and diSinterestedly. The success |
OF the disarmament conference called by |
President Harding doesn't depend upon
formulas but upon something entirely diff |
ferent-the readiness of the powers in |
VOWED to agree upon a program of peace /
that will remove sources of friction and |
possible war. Everybody admits that the |
chances of war i'm Europe are remote for !
physical resources of Europe are too near
exhaustion for anyone to rattle the sabre. !
But there are war clouds in the Pacific .
Japan and the United States have delicate
issues at stake and so have various Brit /
tSh dominiOnS like Australia and Canada
and New Zealand. The British pmnirc /
and the United States must clear the !
Pacific of possible trouble before there !
can be any progress toward disarmament |
Accordingly the conference summoned by I
Mr. Harding is in reality a concrete step /
toward war preventiOn-an effort to pre-
serve peace by going at the roots of trou- |
bic while they are still, not when the paS-9
sions of the peoples are influenced by an
untOward incident.
Exceeds Borah's Plan.
Senator Borah's resolution has been a |
contributing factor toward the bringing
about of the big conference. but at the |
same time the President has gone much 1
farther. He has not limited the meeting !
to Great Britain. Japan and the United /
States as the Idaho senator wished. He
has asked Italy and China to join. the
former because she is a member of the {
supreme council and the latter because
much of the trouble i'm the Pacific relates
to the commercial rights of Japan and
other foreign governments, including
Italy.
In nutshell the significant statement
issued here explaining the relationship .
between the disarmament conference and
discussion of the problems of the Far !
East is an official admission that Japan
must be reckOned with For many months /
It has been apparent that Europe and the
United States were ready for a program
of limiting ornaments but the japanese
were hesitant. Naturally they would be
when there are so many unsettled ques-
tlons in the Far EaSt-all the way from
the dispute over cable communications at i
zap to the Siberian problems and the diff
culties over equality of commercial oppor-
tunity. The big conference has been /
called. however. That means much But /
like the Irish peace conference it is too
early to be ovprconfident of results. The /
biggest task is still ahead-a task left
unfinished at Versailles and still unaccom-
pliShed-namey, bringing the whole
world into agreement on a program. of /
preserving peace so as to make armament /
nunpnpSSaPx 1