The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1922-01-28

flied as second rate naval power,
and formally forbidden to raise her
status in the future.
Facts Needed
Ii is possible that at this point
some way might have been found by
the exercise of tact to avoid causing
France TO feel so badly France
could not resent the present fact that
she is now an inferior naval power.
/ But there is a difference between that
and being formally and definitely ear
marked as a second rate power, far
/ inferior to Japan and being required
to live within that qualification for
4 10 years to come
1t was especially this formal ear
marking of France as a second-rate
naval power that hurt her feelings.
Never the less, tn Official action
which the French delegates tookon
this matter of capital ship ratio was
very fortunate and appears to be of a
nature not to be condoned.
No one can say positively what was
the motive of the French in insisting
on the right to build 10 capital ships,
an insistence which, it was apparent
would be a death blow to the whole
Hughes plan and would cause the con-
ference to be an admitted failure.
Motive Unknown
/ The motive may have been of rea-
sonable pride. No one can say exactly
what it was, because the motive is
wholly a matter within the minds OF
the French delegates, and from the
outside it can only be guessed at
But some newspaper men who are un-
derstood to be more or less familiar
with the French point of view, said
at the time that the motive was a
bartering one
1t was said that France did not
really intend to build these ships, and
did not even mean to take a final
stand on their right to build them
1t was said that the motive was one
of bartering with the British; that
the French wanted to use this threat
in order to compel the British to con
sent TO making a treaty with France
of the sort that France wanted.
If this motive was true one, it was
| thoroughly reprehensible and showed
q complete failure on the part of the
: French to grasp the spirit of the con
. ference, This conference, as one OF
the American delegates once ex
pressed it, a meeting in which nations
are expected to give up things-no
to get things.
Bargain Deplorable
If France was willing to wreck the
} conference or even to threaten its sue
cess, merely for the sake of a tradin.
o. point with which she could compel on,
2 of the other nations in the conference
to make a bargain with her. that wa,
? as deplOrable as could we'll be i'm
: agined.
1t was further said by some VIII
? are supposed 10 be familiar with tn
= French point of view and sympathati
to it, that the French insistence on
: larger allotment of submarines was o
l the nature: that she did no really wan
them, nor have the money to bull
I them, nor even the intention to bull
l them, but merely wanted to use thi
D opportunity to hold the conference
+ up as a trading point with which t
compel the British to make a separat
l treaty that France wanted.
+ 1t must be remembered, of course
that these Inscriptions of motives t
: the French are necessarily in tn
field of surmise. 1t is q field in whic
: it is easy to do injustice.
what the American people want t
+ know now is how we should fec
t about France. Her behavior undoubt
e eddy threatened a conference on tn
= success of which Americans have Sc
+ their hearts. AS a consequence of thi
and many other things. America
feelings have turned strongly agains
l. France.
= Spoiled Child Belief
- In quarters where this feeling
n strong, France is spoken of as th
) spoiled child among nations. 1t is sal
h MONDAY SPECIAL,