The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1922-01-28
French PIQUE
MAY EXPLAIN
her ACTIONS
Trivial Incidents Hurt Feel
ings of Delegates France
Dislikes Being Classed as
Inferior Naval Power.
FEELING HAS CHANGED
ny MARK SULLIVAN

own Washington conference and to- !
ward the world generally is so full of /
complications in which America can
not avoid being involved, that it is i'm |
portant to consider the subject
The state of feeling which arose |
about the French, and the part of the ,
French here at the conference. seemed !
to be divided about equally between
trivial Incidents and matters of real
national Importance. A good deal of
what happened seemed TO be of the
nature of what would be called. in in
tercourse between individuals. merely
social sights.
This sort of thing began on the day
of the opening session of the confer
ence. When BRAND came into the
room and sought his seat, he found it
not at the top side of the table. but
lust around the corner to the right.
All the seats at the top side of the !
table were occupied, by the American
and British delegates. We thought w.
observed something less than graft
fication on the dark and heavy fea-
lures of the French premier as he no
ticed this.
Seats Shifted
Also we observed that three days
later, at the second session. and at all
the subsequent sessions there had a
new shuffling of seats One OF the
British delegates, Geddes, had been
pushed around the corner to the left
in order to make a seat at the top
table for the head Of the French dele
cation.
At that same opening session. after
President Harding had delivered his
speech, Mr.. Hughes remarked that in
as much as copies of the presidents
speech already printed, both in En-
glish as well as in. French, had been
distributed on the tables in front of
the delegates, he presumed it would
not be necessary to have the trans
lator repeat the speech in French.
Having completed this explanation,
Mr. Hughes turned to BRAND and
asked: "Will that be all right. NJ.
Briand?"
The interpreter repeated in French
what Mr.. Hughes had said, and when
BRAND took it in, he replied with q
manner of grudginess, which appaI
emily, he did not care wholly to con.
real. that in as much as the printed
transiations already had been dis
tributcd and in as much as it was
desirable TO save time, he would not
insist on translation in French on
this occasion.
Never waived Again.
But we observed that Hughes never
again. after the first day, made any
suggestion about waving the repeat
ing of the speeches in French. None
of us knew whether the French had
spoken about it in so many words, or
whether Hughes had merely taken n
hint from Brands manner.
All that we noticed was that there
after there was never any waving Cf
the punctilious repetition of each
speech in French. 1t consumed a
good deal of time for the delegates
and bored most of the audience. The
reporters used to call this punculious
repetition of each speech in French,
Telling it to BRAND.
This sort of thing was typical OF
what seemed perpetual French SEN
sitiveness about their national dignity.
French has long been the official Ian
auage of diplomacy To make it the
official language for the present con-
ference would be absurd.
French Sensitive.
The present conference is on the
soil of an English speaking nation and
the English speaking peoples repre-
sented at the conference are about
170.O0O.OOO compared TO France 5
10000. 600 nevertheless, France seemed
to cling with watchful care TO every
prerogative of this kind.
The gossip of Washington was at
all times full of stories of the display
Of French sensitiveness about the pre-
else position they were given at Of
ficial and private dinner tables and
the like One of the French dele
gates seemed to be in such con,
tinual state of wounded feelings that
a humorous reporter referred to him
rs ''peevish Papa Petingil."
In a broader sense than these
minor matters, the French delegates
had other experiences likely to wound
what they call their amour propre
All the principal work Of the early
davs of the conference had to dc
with the naval ratio, and the naval
ratio was treated as a matter for
Great Britain, Japan and the United
States.
These three were the only nations
specifically mentioned by Hughes in
his proposals for the reduction OF
capital ship tonnage. These three
were treated as if. in regard to naval
matters they belonged in a class apart
Literally True
On the basis Of actual nava
strength, this is, of course, literally
true. But the French did not ell
Joy having their relative inferiority
rubbed in" so to speak. During the
war against Germany, there had beer
an understanding. between Grea
Britain and France. whereby Grea
Britain was to attend to the sea end
and France was to concentrate hel
efforts on land warfare.
The result was that for the pas
seven years France practically ceased
he building of new ships. Great Brit
tin, on the other hand, during the wa
greatly stimulated her shipbuilding, Sc
also did Japan and the United States
Fhus the end of the war found France
n a weaker position on the sea thar
probably at any other time since mod
m sea power began. Among the ma
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