Bisbee daily review., 1922-02-21
SENATE DENIED FULL DETAILS
 IF DISCUSSION
 0N ARMS PACT.
Presidents Letter Says to Reveal Facts Incompatible
 With Public Interest
NO DEBATE ON LETTER
Hitchcock Declares Hughes Appearance in Senate Is
 Absolutely Necessary

WASHINGTON, Feb. 20.-President Harding informed the senate today he could not comply with its request for records of the four-power Pacific treaty negotiations because no such records ever existed, and because he considered it incompatible with the public interest to reveal informal and confidential" conversations.
 The presidents five-sentence an- swer to the resolution of inquiry sent to the White House last week was accepted by those in charge of the treaty at the capitol as closing the incident, although at the same time it aroused increased dissatisfaction among senators who instigated the move for more complete information. A proposal to call Secretary Hughes before the foreign relations committee vas revived momentarily but without any immediate prospect of success
 Meantime, the committee took its first formal action on any of the s=- ternational agreements negotiate during the arms conference by report ing favorably the Japanese-American treaty by which the United States is accorded cable and wireless rights on the Pacific island of Yap- The committee leaders later made known their purpose to press the treaty tc- ward vote on the senate floor. in- dicating that debate on it might begin at tnmorrow's session.
 On the Yap treaty the committee divided 10 to l, Senator Pittman. Dem ocrat, Nevada, alone voting in the negative because he felt that insufft cient committee consideration had been given to the treaty.
 Harding's reply to the four-power treaty resolution. which had been pro posed by Senator Hitchcock of Ne braska, senior democratic member of the committee, was as follows:
 Responsive to senate resolution No. 237, asking for records, minutes. arguments, debates, conversations. etc, relating to the so-called four power treaty, I have to advise that it is impossible to comply with the senate's request. Many of the things asked for in the resolution. it is lit- orally impossible to furnish because there are many conversations and dis cussicns quite outside the conference. yet vital to its success. Naturally, they are without record>
 'I do not believe it to be compat- ible with public interest or consistent with the amenities of international ne gotiations to attempt to reveal in- formal and confidential conversations or discussions of which no record was kept, or to submit tentative sugges- tions of informal proposals without which the arrival at desirable interna- tionSl understanding would be rem dered unlikely if. not impossible.
 While I ampunable to transmit the information requested, l do, however. take this opportunity to say most em- phatically that there were no con- cealed understandings, and no secret exchanges of notes, and there are no commitments whatever except as ap- pear in the four-power treaty itseli and the supplementary agreements. which are now in the hands of IL senate"
 When it was read to the senate. the presidents letter provoked no debate but later Senator Hitchcock declared it made absolutely necessary" the appearance of Hughest to tell what he knew of the conversations whic took place at unrecorded meetings Of the big four"
 Late in the day. Hitchcock left fo- western trip, however. and there was no indication that any of
 Democratic or Republican colleagues on the committee would press a de mand that Hughes be summoned.
 Senators Borah. Republican. Idano. and Johnson, Republican. California. both predicted that the manner in which the treaty was negotia'0 would would be debated at length when the committee discussions were transferred to the senate. Johnson issued a formal statement in VI
 he declared that although minute de- tails of less important questions we contained in the conference minutes" laid before the senate. there WIS mo word" about the four-power negotia- tions except the general statement in the American delegation report and the brilliant prose poem" of Senator Lodge, presenting the treaty to the plenary session of December 10.
 At session tomorrow morning. the foreign relations committee is expect ed to proceed with it's discussion of the four-power pact interrupted last Continued on Page Four)