Evening star., 1922-04-10
RUSSIA BIGGEST ISSUE.
Genoa Farley May Bring Omitted
States of Europe" Nearer.
BY PAUL SCOTT MOWRER.

By Cable to The Star and Chicago Daily News
Copyright, 1872
GENOA, April 10.-The conference
which opened here today is the first
complete pan-European gathering in
the whole history of Europe. Never
before has Europe been subdivided
into as many countries as at present,
and every one of these twenty-seven
countries, including even LuXemberg,
is fully represented. The only nom
European countries represented are
the British dominions and Japan.
: 1t is noteworthy that although the
personnel of the various delegations
exceeds 1000 individuals, only the
most expert eye can detect more than
superficial differences between these
various types of Europeans. All dress
and conduct themselves in about the
same way and are sufficiently ia
miliar with the leading languages to
make communication easy. Med
tating on this general homogeneity,
one is tempted to speculate whether
the realization of the United States
of Europe" is not several centuries
nearer than the psychological diver
gences between the various national
groups would indicate.
This homogeniety makes the Jap
anese peculiarly conspicuous. The
United States was also invited, but
declined direct participation. But
Japan, following a policy of interna-
tional study and cooperation con-
trasting strikingly with that of the
United States, seems particularly to
have welcomed the invitation because
of the facilities afforded its diplomats
for watching of development of the
Russian question. in which Japan is
vitality interested.
peoples are taking in the conference
is the fact that nearly 800 newspaper
men, including more than fifty re-
representatives. Of American papers.
are here now or are coming. In
addition many banks and large busi-
cial observers to Genoa The pres
ence Of these rnultitudes adds to
the general atmosphere of mingled
curiosity and confusion with which
the conference opens. There are the
usual opposed camps of pessimists
and optimists. but on the whole the
cynics seem to dominate.
Whatever the conference may or
may not accomplish. the fact will re-
main that the Russians and Germans
have been invited on terms of equal
ity with all the other countries, thus
leaving no outlaw nation in Europe.
The Russian question clearly dom
mates the agenda both politically and
economically. Politically, the most
important issue is the recognition of
the soviet government on certain
definite conditions, and the next most
important is the proposed European
pact, by which all countries are ask
ed to promise not to undertake ag-
gression against their neighbors.
Nearly all the economic points of
the agenda apply to Russia The
chief among them is the proposal to
launch an international consortium
to finance trade between the nations
and thus make possible something
like a gradual stabilization of eX-
change.
The questions of Limitation of land
armaments and of reparations are
barred except perhaps as concerns
Russia. Whether the question of the
interallied debts exclusive of the Eu-
ropean debts to the United States
will be discussed is still uncertain.
So far as the writer can ascertain
most of the efforts to form groups
between the various nations for COM
mon action in the conference have
been unsatisfactory. The Baltic
states, the Scandinavian Kingdoms
and the little entente tCzechcsIova-
kia, Rumania and Jugoslavia) all
held preliminary meetings, but did
not reach any general agreement. The
attempt to form group of neutrals
failed and the allies are having great
difficulty in agreeing between Them
selves on the details of the agenda.
1t will doubtless be several days
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