Evening star., 1921-07-24

among other things. whether the
Anglo-Japanese alliance should be
renewed.
That the renewal of this offensive
and defensive pact is near to the
| not disputed and there is reason to
believe that Premier Lloyd George.
too. would have liked to see tex
tended for~Tanothef ten years; pro-
| the approval of the United States
and the British dominions. particu-
| larly Canada. Australia and New Zeas
| land. =
Early in the negotiations at Lon
| don. however. it became plain to the
was most unpopular in The United
States. and that the colonial pre-
miers were none too eager to have
! 1t renewed. 1t was recognized. new
| ertheless. that to denounce the pact
| would be disappointment from
! which the japanese would be slow to
! recover. The invitation of the United
| states to participate in a conference
/ which should take up all the various
| questions of the far east with view
| to settling them. and thus paving the
way to an agreement on the reduc-
ton of ar:namentS. came. therefore.
/ as great relief to Lloyd George
| 1t provided him an easy way ou OF
i the dilemma into which he had geen
| thrust and allowed him mean3 OF
graciously deferring the question of
renewing the Anglo-Japanese pact
With Japan matters were not SO
| simple She had expected the ac-
ton of President Harding in call
/ ing disarmament conference, but
she had not expected that the scope
of such a conference would De ex
tended to iHclude discussions OF the
problems OF the Pacific. Further
more. Japan was undoubtedly some
what chagvined by the turn taken
by the negotiations for the renewal
of the alliance. That she should
, ing an unqualified acceptancerot the
| in vitation was. therefore. entirely to
have been expected, and 1t also was
| natural to suppose that she might
seek to know the scope and char
, acter of the proposed discussion of
! far eastern problems. in which she
was certainly justified in considering
her interests to be of primary i'm
| portance.
THE reply .made by Secretary
L Hughes to the partial acceptance
| forwarded by Japan was perfectly In
| keeping with the policy laid down by
| the administration with regard to the
part this government should play In
the forthcoming conference. This gov
ernment has no idea of attempting to
| fix the agenda' of the conference. and
therefore could not answer the Japa-
nese query as to the scope and char
acter of the proposed discussion of
| far eastern problems. Tie general
| purpose of the conference had been
! defined by the Department OF State S
II.
| municated to the powers. The Presi-
dent, believing that the whole world
| is vitality interested in. seeing some
thing done to lessen :the enormous
! economic waste due to the ever
, increasing competition in ornaments.
! had decided to suggest to the powers
| that conference be held for the pur-
| pose of endeavoring to reach some
, agreement for their reduction. The
close relationship between the prob
strength and the many problems pend
| ing in the Pacific was obvious. and for
y; that reason it was deemed advisable
! to endeavor to arrive at>some general
! policy toward the Pacific and the far
east which would be acceptable to
would inevitably arise to the detri-
/ ment of the disarmament project IL
| those problems were left unsettled. :
Stated in this way, 1t was regarded
as almost inevitable that Japan should
eventually see the wisdom of the
course. The knowledge that the
United States was not attempting to
dictate what should or should not be
discussed in the conference, but was
resolved to leave such matters to the
! joint action of the participating ma
tions. also could not but have been re-
assuring to the Toxic government,
The administration had never pre-
sumed otherwise than that the various
nations invited to participate should
freely express their views both before
/ and during the conference as to- what
/ matters might properly be settled
| in accepting each nation retained it's
sovereign rights as an Independent
state. and therefore in no way pledged
itself to any particular line Of action.
In this connection, 1t was pointed
out that the American delegation in