The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-04-12
FRANCE AND BRITAIN
 ANSWER U. s. NOTE .ON MANDATE ISSUE
State Department Officials Re. fuse to Intimate Nature of Replies to Communication
 Regarding Yap
By Associated Press

Washington, April 11.-Frauce and Great Britain are understood to have replied to Secretary Hughes recent notes regarding the Japanese mandate over the Pacific island of Yap. The British government response is said to have been of preliminary nature.
 State department officers, while inti- mating that replies had been received, declined to say 80 positively or to in dicate their nature A
 France, in replying to a previous Amer ican note regarding the Yap mandate, expressed the hope that the controversy between the United States and Japan on this subject could be settled by direct negotiations between them without in yolving her as q principal Whether re- newed expression is given to this hope in Frances latest note has not been dis closed, but some diplomats are of the opinion that In any event her new com munication would go further, inasmucn as MT. Hughes dealt with the whole sub ! ject of mandates as well as with Tap officially.
 EXPECTED TO SUBMIT It has been the expectation of state department officers and some foreign envoys here as well that the allied gov ernments would admit the soundness ot the American position that as one Of the principal allied and associated powers in favor of which Germany by the treaty of Versailles renounced it's rights and titles in it's overseas possessions, the | United States Is entitled to voice in the { ultimate disposition of these territories. l It has been assumed that the applica- | tion of the principle will be left to fur | ther negotiations. Details of the appli- cation. it is said, might embrace the | awarding of mandates as we'll as the ! terms under which the former German | territories would be administered ! Secretary Colby, ill his note to Great Britan on the Mesopotamian oil ques- ! tion, as well as in his communication or last February to the council of the League of Nations on the Yap mandate, contended that the American government should be given opportunity to pass \ upon the mandate forms before then final adoption.
 COMMENT WITHHELD
 Tn view of the supposed tentative char acter of the British reply to MT Hughes, there was little disposition in official circles to comment regarding the atti- tude of that government The opinion has been advanced, however, that Great Britains attttude probably would be ih- fluenced in great measure by whether
 
 { out of the terms of the treaty of Lon don under which Great Britain aud Fraace agreed she should have the for
 ner German islands north of the eqiei- tor This treaty was entered into before the UMited States declared war on ter many and at the time when Japan was asked to come more actively to lhe as- sistance of the European allies in com batting the German submarine menace | I narently still fer from settlement, 1t IS not thought likely that the international communications conference. which re- stimes it's session tomorrow, will make great progress toward agreement on the disposition of former German ca bles. l~r,r
 Norman E. Davis, former under sec- retary of state, who as chairman called tomorrow's meeting, was in conference with the Secretary of State several hours today. After leaving the Secre- tary's office, Mr. Davids said the out look for ultimate agreement among the conferees was good, although it IS not l believed probable that much progress will be made until the broader ques- I tions involved in the Tap dtscusSion | are disposed of.
 f MT. Davis said the communications conference would resume it's programme where 1t had left off several weeks ago, when several European represen- tatives requested short delay to per init communication with their govern ments.
 j The former secretary declared that his duties as presiding officer of the communications conference had caused him to forego earlier plans to so to Europe this spring. Instead, he said. he believed he would go to the Tennes- see mountains for months rest as ! soon as the business of the conference ! is concluded.