The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1922-02-07
ARMS TREATY
is DEATH OF
SEA MASTERY
England Yields Naval Domin-
ance Never Before Relin-
quished by a Power Except
Through Battle.
HUGHES POINTS WAY
by MARK SULLIVAN


as the conference on disarmament be-
gan we gave General Foch 90 college
degrees a baby wildcat. and an hon
orary membership in the New York
Bicklayer's Union. and almost any day
here in Washington you can see a
score of generals going about the
street bowed down under the weight
of half ton of metal more or less, in
shape of crosses, crescents, stars, bars
and other miscellaneous forms of what
those among them who have a sense
of humor occasionally call "decora-
tive hardware"
But in day or so | suppose, we
shall see Charles f. Hughes quietly
taking boat to Bermuda for a rest,
dressed in a black sack suit. good
deal less ornamental than that of the
assistant purser. AS some one re
marked at the session yesterday, 'its
all over, but the shouting, and I sup
pose there won't be any shouting"
Gamor of Peace.
This is not as it should be | know
very wise person who has given
much thought to war and it's causes.
He says we shall have to find some
way either to take the glamor away
-
victories of peace
The persons and organizations. the
churches and colleges. who three
months ago were most usefully build
ing up favorable atmosphere for this
conference through prayer and other
forms of organized spiritual effort,
ought now to put their minds on find
ing some way OF making what has
now been accomplished as striking, as
glamorous If you please, and as long
remembered, as, let us say, the arm
lsuce day ceremony of last November.
Perhaps the formal sinking of the
ships, If they are to be literally sunk,
may provide the opportunity.
Time Will Tell
How great a thing this conference
is has so often been said that it is
useless to say it again in mere gener-
alities. For complete realization we
shall probably have to wait for time
and. perhaps, for generations of full
fillment
But it can be taken as a fact that
there are in these treaties not merely
one but several factors, each of which
standing alone. is a turning point in
human history
One thing so far lost sight of that
1t is hardly even mentioned is the
tact that through one of these treaties
Great Britain surrenders the undis-
puted mastery of the seas.
1t is true she is not stripped of il
by force; but, voluntarily, in the inter-
est OF new order in the world. admits
an equal partner
That this happens through the pro-
cesses OF conference does not deprive
1t OF the fact that this conference thus
becomes the equivalent of any of ,he
great decisive sea battles of history.
Dominance Divided
dominance on the sea is no longer.
as 1t always has been in the past. the
possession of a single power. It is
now handed over to mutual partner
ship of nations. The mastery of the
sea which Britain now, so to speak.
turns over to trustees, has been within
her sole possession for two hundred
years.
Before that Holland had it, and be-
fore that Spain and Portugal, and so
on all the way back to Tyre. ALWAYS
there was one power dominant on the
sea, and never did it pass except
through battle. until February 6. 1922.
That is one of the larger factors in
the treaties. There are several
more. 1t would be easy to feel irri-
tated with those who, either through
ignorance of the past. or want of i'm
agination about the future, fail TO esti-
mate this conference at its true height.
Simplicity Noticeable
In the mere minutiae of the confer
ence. in its mere mechanism. so to
speak, there was one thing that was
not less than an outstanding example
OF sheer genius. That was the selec-
tion Of the formula for ending compe-
utlon in naval armament.
IT was the simplicity and concrete
ness of this formula that produced the
results. Balfour knows this, and has
said so. That Hughes also thinks so
can be taken for granted from several
things he has said. although his per
sonal relation to it may restrain him
from saying so directly.
When this conference was first pro-
posed the naval experts of the var
ious nations We're set to work to make
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