The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1922-01-13
WILL ASSURE
INTEGRITY OF
JAPAN, China
Conference Will Safeguard
Both Countries Without In
jury to Nippon-Open Door
Gives Her Advantage.
HARD KNOTS AHEAD
Nv MARK SULLIVAN

fneDL conference Will COME ~ dh eLlo
with events less dramatic, perhaps. but
no less concrete than those with which
il began. The thought, or rather the
atmosphere which suggests that the
conference is going to peter out is as
far as possible from the facts.
Any idea that the questions of China
and Siberia are going to be thrown
into the pot with a lick and promise
while the foreign delegates hurry to
make their sailing dates should not be
entertained. .-- -...-...
Sailing dates will have to yield to
he job as one official remarked re-
Gently, until this conference has gone
through the job like a saw through an
oak. When the job is done and done
we'll the conference will be over and
not before"
The delegates have worked hard, but
they are not tired. They are not the
calibre of men to lose sight of the
purpose with which they began their
job of to become listless because they
encounter a knot in the oak.
Difficulties Admitted
China and Siberia admittedly present
difficulties, but there is no possibility
Of the conference ending without Of
firmation OF two broad principles about
those two territories; not merely the
affirmation of principles, but also ac-
tion based on these principles or the
clear promise of action at a sufficiently
definite date
The principle about China is that her
political integrity shall be unimpaired
and that on the economic and com
mercial side no rights or privileges
shall be asserted or enjoyed by any
one nation that are not equally en-
ioyed by all other nations.
AS to Siberia, the principle is sub
etantialIy the same. Hughes once eX-
pressed it by saying that the United
States has a sense of moral trustee
ship for preserving the integrity of
Russia's territory until that unhappy
country has recovered from her pres
ent woes
II is not tolerable that when Rus
sia comes back she shall come to the
spectacle of world which regards it.
self as more respectable than Russia
now is in political and economic
7Sense but which nevertheless has
seized the opportunity to pick up a
few trifles of the sick nations terri
tory. The nations represented at this
conference are neither going to en-
gage in giving awav somebody else
property nor to condone the taking of
somebody else's property.
AS to Japan's Needs
The plea that Japan must have a
mart of the mainland of Asia to give
room to an expanding population has
been disposed of by the conference.
Japan does not want room or need
room for expansion in the sense OF
peopling new territories outside her
homeland. The facts and figures that
have been assembled in the course of
the work of the conference make this
clear The people of Japan do not
colonize in new territories.
Since Japan has had Korea and
parts of northern Asia the number of
Japanese who have gone in and col
onized has been negligible. What has
really happened is that under the pro-
lection of the more settled govern
ment that Japan has brought to those
parts of Manchuria where she has es-
tablished it is the Chinese, and not
the Japanese. who have come in and
colonized in large numbers.
What Japan wants and needs is ac-
cess to the coal, iron and other raw
materials on the mainland of Asia.
To this she is entitled just as other
nations are entitled to it. Because
she is so much nearer, she will always
have a greater advantage than other
nations. But this advantage of geo
graphical nearness ought to be, and
must be, enough for Japan. 1t is not
20 be tolerated that she should set
up political control there of sort
that would enable her to exclude other
nations or put them at a serious dis
advantage.
Heart oF Questions
This is the heart of the Chinese
and Siberian questions that are still
ahead of the conference. The pres
ent unhappy condition of those two
countries makes the question diff
cult. but the conference will not ad-
journ with any action concerning them
that is unsatisfactory 10 the American
people
Il should be recalled that at the
third open session of the conference
Hughes read the Root resolutions on
China, had them formally adopted by
the conference. and then said: This
declaration is, in truth, charter con-
tanning an assurance TO China of pro-
lection from acts in derogation of her
sovereignty and independence and ad-
ministrative autonomy, and also an
assurance that as between the powers
there will be careful observance of
the principle of free and equal oppor-
tunity in matters relating to China,
and that no one will seek special ad-
vantages or privileges at the expense
of the rights of others"
Nr. Hughes then expressed for him
self the hope that before the confer
ence should end all those matters
about China and the Far East should
be put into an appropriate agreement
and that such an agreement should be
signed by the powers concerned. That
is the point at which the conference
now is
Copyright 1922 by the New York
Evening PostO
Hammond Freshness Block