Evening star., 1926-10-02
j. s. HELD UNLIKELY
TO ACT ON COURT
Next Move Believed Up to
Powers Which Acted on
u. S. Reservations.
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.

The next move in the World Court
| controversy is up to the powers who
| assembled at Geneva recently and re
jected the American reservations
which had been adopted by the Unite ed
! States Senate.
The word rejected is used ad
visedly. For President Coolidge re
CARDS the action Of the foreign
| governments as rejection of the
American proposal This was officially
! disclosed at the White House. The
, President also feels that the proposal
which the foreign governments re
! jected was the Senate's own proposal
and that. therefore, he must ask the
Senate what it desires to change In
the wording of the proposal to con
form to the ideas of the foreign gov.
ernments.
He proposes to do the asking ir
informal fashion rather than by for
| NAL message, so there will be no time
lost in extended debate. 1t is a fore
gone conclusion what Senators of
both political parties will tell him
namely. that it Is useless to reopen
the question and permit the "irrecon
cilables" to talk 1t to death and de
stroy cha noes Of having other import
ant legislation acted on at the coming
short session of Congress.
Confers With Swanson.
Senator Swanson. Democratic leader
who handled the fight for the World
Court was the first consulted by
President Coolidge. Mr.. Swanson had
been in Geneva at the time the Ameri
ican reservations were under consider
alton. so knows the viewpoint of for.
eign governments. Possibly they
thought the American Senate would
be conciliatory and would accept the
Interpretation placed on the famous
fifth reservation.
They will shortly be advised that
it would be difficult to get two-thirds
of the Senate to accept the new in
terpretation. So If the rest of the
world wants the United States in the
World Court. the language of the
diplomatic note to be addressed to the
United States soon by other govern
ments must be changed. There still
is time to do it for the final diplomatic
exchanges have not been carried out.
The views of the United States will
he told informally to some of the
American Ambassadors and Ministers
abroad by the Department of State il
the President can obtain a concensus
of the Senate in time to do so.
Fear Opposition Over Pride.
When the powers receive word that
the Senate will not accept the Geneva
Interpretation they still have a chance
to modify the phraseology and yet not
be in a position of avoiding a forma
refusal from the United States. What
is most feared now is that If the word
| from the United States comes after
the Geneva message is formally de
| livered. pride will prevent many ma
tions from agreeing later to a con.
cession or change of vital Importance
What Is most desired here by
friends Of the court is that the foreign
governments will accept In its en-.
tirety the American set of reserva.
tions and then determine for them
selves later on what procedure shall
! be adopted in the case of advisory
opinions requiring American consent
in advance. A diplomatic note from
the Department of State setting forth
the class of questions on which there
might be objection to advisory Opin-
ions being rendered by the World
Court might suffice as practical
working formula. Two or three years
from now the Senate might even con-
sent to an explicit declaration of
what 1t meant by the fifth reserva-
ton. But if America is not admitted
into the court at all at this time. the
chances of entry at a future date are
remote SO it's up to the Geneva
members to say the next word