Evening star., 1921-11-26
WORLDASSOC|AT|ON
WAR FREE, j. S. AIM
President Sounds Nations on
Plan AbsoIved From Pen
aIties of Conflicts.
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.

President Harding mas taken III
formally the first step toward the per-
petuation of the idea of international
conference as developed by the pres
ent meeting for the limitation OF
armament.
Mr.. Harding is sounding the pow
ers as to his plan. 1t is not league
of nations nor an association OF ma
tions in the sense that the Versailles
treaty created an international body.
No such formal or rigid institution,
ror such rules and regulations or OBJ
legations as the covenant OF the
league provided, are in Mr.. Harding
mind, but he does hope to develop
sequel to the first and second Hague
conferences of 1899 and 1907 which
may benefit by the experience of those
two international gatherings and
bring about a general get-together
meeting of nations at frequent in
tervals.
Has Able Advisers.
The President has about him men
like Elihu- Root, are familiar
with the Hague conference work and
it's defects, and who can advise him
how to avoid the pitfalls of those
meetings. One trouble was that the
initiative in calling Hague confer
ences was left to an individual Ihe
Emperor of Russia called the meeting
iM 1899, and it was President Roose-
welt who was about to bring the sec
ond conference into session when the
Emperor Of Russia again took the
initiative in 1907. The understanding
then was that the conferences would
be held every seven years and thlrd
conference was about to be sum-
moned when the European war clouds
of 1914 gathered and prevented
meeting.
MIR. Hardings first Improvement
upon the original Hague plan is the
setting up of machinery for the call
ing of the conferences. Here at WASH
ington that point will be discussed
and it is indeed the only thing that
need be laid before the powers, for
Mr.. Harding's idea is that the con-
ference shall make it's own rules
when it meets, shall frame its own
program and take action as 1ndl-
vidual sovereign nations and not as
a supergovernment.
Feels Allies Are Nucleus.
The President feels that the prin-
cipal allied and associated powers
constitute nucleus. Instead of
leaving the call of the conference to
one executive or one government. a
standing committee might be ap-
pointed, consisting of representatives
of several countries. to whom petit
tion for an international conference
could be made. For the moment the
President feels that meeting every
year would be be a good idea, but
some provision would have to be
made, of course, for the calling OF a
conference when emergencies devei-
oped, and it is for that reason
standing committee has been urged
by some of the counselors, who have
laid the matter before Mr.. Harding.
1t is more than a coincidence, per-
haps, that the first Hague conference
was called for the very purpose of
limiting armaments, but Germany
was unwilling to agree to reduction
or Limitation. The first Hague con-
ference of 1899 was more or less ex-
perimental. only twenty-six govern
ments being represented. The second
conference, in 1907, found fortyfour
states represented. and definite rules
of international law were drawn up,
, ed by many of these powers when the
war Of 1914 broke out.
League Bound Up in Treaty.
Far from attempting to create a
rival of the league of nations, Mr..
Harding's idea is that the latter body
is essentially an institution for the
inforcement of the treaty of Versailles
and as such has a peculiarly valuable
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