The New York herald., 1922-02-17
old Diplomacy selfish.


the picture should be painted entirely
in shadow.
Old Diplomacy selfish.
The old diplomacy. like the new
diplomacy. often had great and generous
ends. Yet ! do think ii true that II
Won look back over history, if you con-
slider the occasions on which nations
met to deal round the council board
with common affairs. you will find that
he who got the most worth was he who
carried aay the most sDoils. that the
icea was YOU met together and he T6S
the best diplomatist who snatched the
greatest apparent and obvious advan-
tage either TO national vanity, national
ambition or some other motive, respect
able or the reverse.
Now as the Prime Minister has
pointed out. none of these can be said
of the Washington conference. No such
spirit animated the Powers there as
sembled They never were slaves TO
that preposterous fallacy that there was
a certain fixed amount of advantage TO
be got by somebody, that If one nation
got 1t another nation lost it, that the
sum could not be increased. and that
it was only question: 1t is not
putting ii too offensively-how the rob-
bers should divide the spoils. how this
fixed maximum advantage should be
distributed among the various claim
ants.
'.That may be necessary element in
some negotiations at a certain crisis in
certain states of international relation
ship. but these are pretty sordid al
fairs. necessary. perhaps, sometimes, but
never satisfactory compared with the
scrt of task we had to deal with and
- in /
TO think. that the nations there assem-
bled met and discussed the affairs OF
thc world.
THE note was struck from the begin
Ring by the United States, and through
out the sincere efforts of those on
whom the ultimate decision on those
points came to rest their sincere and
orly desire was not this or that petty
national advantage, but that far greater
national advantage which comes from
good international arrangements.
Foundation Laid for Peace.
Certainly four months ago. did not
believe anybody expected, however
much they desired it, that that vast
area, the Pacific Ocean and it's adja-
cent continents, would be so changed
from an area in which anxiety and the
suspicion of possible war was causing
mutual suspicion and something ap-
proa ching mutual fear Whether this
was prevalent or not, at all events it
is no common phenomena that in four
| months that should have changed as it
undoubtedly has changed to a condition
of affairs under which all those
wretched symptoms which threatened
a renewal in the West of the same hor-
rcrs we have been going through in
Europe and in the East.
THAT those things should completely,
| so far as can judge, come to an end !;
that every problem down to the minut-
torily settled for all time or for gener-
ations, is too much to ask of any con-
! ference. But it is true / believe that a
! foundation has been laid upon Which
every great question moves, that Of the
whole of the land problems of the Far
! East, of the naval problems in the Pa
cfic and the less obvious but not less
real question of naval disarmament or
naval diminution OF armaments.
These, / believe. have been settled
ond If I am right and If I am not too
songuine. do really believe that the
&C inference has amongst its fruits not
merely advantages which can be meas
ured in pounds. shillings and pence,
believe it can only be estimated by
those who will look beneath the surface
| OF what are called facts and figures to
tEose truths which are more funda-
| mental than ordinary facts or figures.
the fundamental facts OF human nature,
| the feeling of nation to nation, of COM
munity to community All those things
have undergone change in that part
OF the world Transformation OF which
the value cannot be estimated"