Evening star., 1924-10-12
SCOUTS BAR TO WAR
SIMONDS HOLDS LEAGUE PROTOCOL ONLY
MORAL BARRIER.

that she may accept the settlement Of
1918 as France did those Of 1914 and
1915, which robbed her of vastly larger
areas and OF much larger popuIa-
ton, the fruit of all her victories
from the revolution to the end of the
empire. And in that case Germany
may become quite as quickly a mem
Der OF the League Of Nations as France
did OF the association OF states but re-
Gently leagued against her
No Warrant Against Bad Faith.
However, that is for the future;
what is important is to recognize that
the league has once more come up
against the impossible barrier OF Sc
curity. 1t cannot guarantee good
faith against bad; il can only provide
d way for proving the former and
establishing the latter. Nations must
still seek security by employing their
own means of defense and associat-
ing themselves with other nations
having similar dangers. Moreover
when the discussion of disarmament
does come up at the promised confer
ence, it is safe to assume that such
Limitation of armament as Is achieved
Will be the result Of mutual pledges.
that France will not reduce her ar
mics save as Britain promises to make
good the deficit with her own diyi-
sions in case of French peril. And
since Geneva makes it increasingly
clear that Britain will give no such
pledge, just as she will resist any at
tempt to bring about the reduction of
her colossal fleet, the pospect Of dis
armament has not been appreciably
enhanced.
So much for the general aspect of
the recent session, but with respect
of America there have been three
rather interesting developments. In
the first place the league, through
/ the prime ministers of Britain and
France, has with great explicitness
refused the American proffer to call
a disarmament conference next year.
If the United States Will not join
The league and will not Cooperate
with it, now at last the nations COM
posing the league have pretty clearly
indicated that they will not go out
side of the league to discuss ques
tions which are within the area q
league operations.
Waited Long for America.
For five years all the effort has
been to get the United States into the
league, and there has been a deliber-
ate policy of waiting for what was
believed to be an inevitable arrival
There was more than suggestion
that the success of the league de-
pended upon American membership,
and therefore nothing importan:
could be undertaken until We Joined
Europe wanted American participa-
ton in the initial phases of League
organization. But now Europe has
resolved to go ahead with the league
and let the United States follow its
own course. american membership
I Is still very important. would be
( welcomed with general enthusiasm.
! put is no longer a condition of sue
cess or full operation
Taken by itself this would not be
OF much Importance, but the japanese
| are responsible for a second develop
ment which concerns US directly In
. the Geneva session the japanese
representatives sought to establish
the principle that where the domestic
! pol!cy of country supplied cause for
war II should be within the purview
OF the league AS it stood, the Inter
national Court of Justice might, on
appeal. decide that an issue between
TWO nations arose from purely
domestic concerns of one, and was
! therefore beyond the limits of court
consideration. The nation thus ap-
pealing and suffering defeat would
oe condemned as an aggressor il
Notwithstanding the decision, it re
sorted 70 host!iities
rms meant, OF course, that if the
United States persisted in a policy
OF discrimination against japanese
immigrants, and Japan regarded this
as an aggressive action, she could ap-
peal TO the League of Nations and
/ her appeal would not disappear mere
/ ~ because the Court of Justice held
as IT must, that the matter was a
domestic affair of our own. Naturally
Canada, South Africa and Australia
with similar discriminatory policies,
were interested, but the real issue
was between America, which was alb
( sent, and Japan, which was present,
at Geneva
In the end the real issue was
eVaded, it was agreed that even if the
court ruled matter to be domestic,
the council of the league might con-
! slider 1t and act upon il, if il were q
patent cause of war. But all that the
/ council could do would be advisory.
! 1t could give an opinion, but il could
not issue an order. If the United
states declined TO heed the advice
Japan would still have no warrant for
war, would still be an aggressor, if
she did resort to arms
Nevertheless one cannot blink the
fact that what was attempted was a
direct invasion of American domestic
affairs and what resulted was a half
way compromise which might have
disagreeable consequences if, for ex-
ample, the league should on Japanese
appeal undertake to advise Washing
ton to modify its immigration policy
as it affected japanese and Asiatics
generally. Such a gesture Japan
might, moreover, procure since she is
member of the league and since,
aside from the British and ourselves.
the color line is not recognized
The idea of league regulation OF raw
materials, like that of league control Of
national naval and military resources
| represents ii very definite expression
of an international conception as CON
trasted with national and more than
hints at the superstate of all the old
Senate debates.
Yet in reality the Geneva expert
ence demonstrated that the trend of
the league is rather away from than
toward international and superstate
, ideas, for on the alLimportant point
or international force to carry out
league decisions it was plain that
what was considered and even to a
degree held possible at the Paris CON
ference SIX years ago was no longer
within the realm of possibility.
what the latest session at Geneva
did was to lift the league into new
Importance as a world assembly, to
S''N - a ihOld dulHOTlly "nlCn 1t
has never had before, to give it a de-
gree of international influence which
1t has hitherto lacked. The great un-
dertak1ng of establishing and main
tanning peace is now recognized to
belong to the league, and such outside
and independent ventures as the
Washington conference are hence
forth impossible. The United States
may cooperate with the league on
occasion without actually joining, but
1T cannot ignore the league and hold
new international gatherings OF its