New-York tribune., 1922-01-18
International Police
French Plan at the Paris Conference
-Rooseyelt's Idea

To the Editor of The Tribune.
Sir: The chief impression created
by the latest installment of Ray Stan
nard Bakers book is that at the Paris
conference France, by her proposal Of
an international army and navy with
permanent staff was working for the
adoption Of method, to use the very
words attributed by Mr. Baker to
President Wilson, ''substituting inter
national miltarism for national mill
tarsm "a method Of which Mr. Baker
says that, $50 far from forcing the
abolition Of compulsory military serv-
ice. it provided for the possible adop-
tion of that principle by the entire
world. for it permitted the interna-
tional body to require member state
to adopt compulsory service as a recon-
mendation of the general staff"
These statements. both by Mr.. Will
son and MIR. Baker, in their necessary
implications. are inaccurate, unwar-
ranted ky the facts and most unfair.
The French plan urged by Mr..
Bourgeois in the conference commit
tee on the League of Nations contem-
plated the creation of an international
police force as the instrument of the
League Of Nations. the use of which
was 10 be restricted to the purposes
of the league. The chief feature of
the plan was the preservation of a
nucleus of the inter-Allicd war staff
and its employment in preparing for
and assuring coordination of action in
case of emergency.
The statement that the plan was to
vest in the general staff power to
maintain compulsory military serv-
ice by the entire world" is
recklessly false. AS Mr.. Baker should
know, the plan provided merely that
in the event Of war the experience of
the last war should not be repeated
as regards the delays incident to dis
cussions of the merits of the volunteer
system in the midst of the emergency.
and that it should be possible TO re-
sort to common policy Of compulsory
service from the outset. What Mr..
Baker plainly intimates, however, is
that the plan vested in the staff power
to impose compulsory military service
in time of peace
The plan of the international police
force did not originate with the French
delegation at the peace conference,
but with an American who received the
Nobel peace prize for the address in
which he outlined the plan, who, alas!
brcathed his last as the peace confer
ence was thering-Theodorc Roose
welt of blessed memory.
Roosevelt knew that justice does not
enforce itself in world affairs, but
needs police aid to make the law
breaker live up to its dictates. And
what Roosevelt knew and preached
France believed in and advocated and
Wilson opposed at the peace confer
ence.
Had he succeeded in his cndeayors
Tor general disarmament it is easy
to realize what must have happened
when the Soviet army reached the
Vistula in August, 1920, and onlv the
presence of a large Allied army on the
Kline, 80 per cent French, restrained
the "disarmed" Germans from attack
ing the Polish army in the rear and
annihilating the newborn republic
as the first step Of a Gcrman-Sovict
domination of Europe
But the plan for an international
police force is still there to be adopted
as an indispensable feature of anv
association of nations which will real
~ aim effectually to hinder aggression
and further international Justice. And
1T will be adopted if and when states
manship and courage of the Roosevelt
KIND are restored to and prevail in tho
councils of nations.
MAURICE LEON.
New York, Jan. 16, 1922.