Norwich bulletin. [volume] (Norwich, Conn.) 1895-2011, 1922-02-28
BRANDEGEE TALKS
ON RESERVATIONS

Continues From Page one)
any allial1e or commitment or any
involvement. 1 want to see to it that all
the nations of the world fully understand
that. There were people, you know,
who said that the United States WEIGH
ed when it failed to ratify the Versailles
treaty, and they said they had dealt
with the president and ina gined that
was sufficient. I believe the honest thing
to do is to notify the world now when
there is no dispute on the horizon that
If any rights in relation to insular
possessions in the Pacific are threatened
the congress of the United States VIII
ultimately decide the issue
THE question is entirely unrelated
to any personality in congress or to
the occupant of the White House" ex-
planned Senator Brandegee. 1T is safely
a question of understanding the con-
stitutional phases of the words United
States government Under the Constitu-
ton the government was divided into
three parts-legislative executive and
judicial. I firmly believe neither the
encroach on the other. know that the
interpretations which are placed upon
the duties of the presidential office diff
fer from time to time. A man like Pres
fdent Harding may have one idea and
Mr.. Wilson might have another. 1 am
not looking at the question from the per
| sonal viewpoint for those differing con-
ceptions may rise to trouble America
long after We of the present generation
are dead.
Suppose, for instance, that ten or
fifteen years hence Russia has been re-
stored and encroached on the northern
half af the island of Sakhalin now claim
ed by Japan. What does Japan do?
| She calls a conference of powers under
| the terms of the f6ur-power treaty The
preamble of this treaty says its pur-
/ pose is to maintain the rights of Great
| Britain, France. Japan and the United
| States, in relation to their insular pos
| sessions and doTninions. It says in re-
! lation to- which, Of caarrse, is broad
| enough to cover such an aggression as
| Russia might start toward the Sakhalin
Island. Now Japan's rights in that is
bland are a matter Of DISPUTE today. Yet
article two of the four-power treaty re-
| quires a conference of powers whenever
| aggression by an outside power develops
| over said rights It doesn't define what
| said rights may be and il we do not
now say that we have the right to de-
| terrnine for ourselves whether those
rights are valid or Invalid we may be in
| the position Of having acouiesced in
| them
| ABut when conference Is called Il
is obvious from the language af this
treaty that the purpose Of the onference
! Is to arrive at an understanding or ar
| adjustment What actually hanpens7 A
| delegate or ambassador represents the
| United States at that conference. Ar
agreement Is reached. Since sakhalin is
an island. the only means of protecting
! 1t Is by navy or by economic boycott
| Of the offending power. Now it may
| develop that the public sentiment o.
| America Is against war with Russia, OF
(, that we of this country do not believe
Japan has a. right to the island in ques.
| ton. What I want to prevent Is some
| American president getting UP and say
| ing that an agreement had been reached
| under the terms Of a treaty ratified by
| the United States senate whereby a con
| ference of powers determines the mos
| efficient means of maintaining the rightt
| cavered by the treaty.
with the immense powers which thu
executive has of ordering warships Il
any quarter af the globe-and saMin,
orders are usually and properly secret
| we may wake up and find ourselves oil
| the threshold at war without voice a.
to whether we want to commit ourselve.
to war. 1t is said that this is understoo,
in the language of the treaty, and W,
who read English and kye familiar Will
our own constitutional system may b.
in agreement about it but 1 want every
body in Japan and Russia and elsewher,
in the world to understand that con
greas has absolute freedom of actor
and that the ratification of this treat,
doesn't put upon us amy moral or lega
obligation as to what we shall do in tn
future when confronted with the ques
ton of maintaining anybodys rights Il
the Pacific"