Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-07-10
GENEVA is UNPROPITIOUS
FOR NAVAL FARLEY SITE
Plethora of Conferences, Disarmament
Encouragement and Hostile Press
Are UnfavOrable.

| in world peace had arrived and he
gladly acquiesced in the scrapping
| of his cherished ships.
Admiral Kato also was much i'm
| pressed by the fact that the Wash.
! ingtOn Conference was opened by
| prayer and he mentioned this in his
| speeches to the Japanese as illus
trative of the earnestness of the
American people that they should
| pray for the success of the confer
ence as step nearer peace. The
Geneva Conference was not opened
by prayer. Instead, battery of
| camera men yelled: Look this way"
"Once more now" STEADY" Don't
Of applause greeted each delegate at
the Washington Conference, there
was not one ripple of applause during
or after the opening plenary session
at Geneva.
Added to this inertia was the con-
fusion stirred up by the German,
French and Swiss Newspaper men who
regularly cover the League of Nations
sessions in regularly allotted seats
and who at the opening of the naval
conference tried to find these seats.
Partly due to lack of any centralized
method by the American delegation
for handling the press and partly due
to the great influx Of Japanese, Brit.
ish and American journalists, the
European newspaper men had been
seated in the back rows. Upon dis
covering this they organized. boy
colt and walked out of the conference
en- masse. airing their grievances in
their columns next morning.
Critical Spirit Spreads.
This spirit of criticism, naturally
contagious. spread to some Of the
American and British Newspaper men
even during the first days Of the con-
ference. Despite Amba ssador Gibsons
suggestion that each country's first
proposals always represent the widest
possible extreme at every conference
and that they could only be recon-
ciled by patient study and negotiation.
a good many jingoistic reports have
been sent over the wires describing
the impossibility of reconciling British
and American naval requirements.
The discouraging start to which the
naval conference got off reverts to
the geographical location of Geneva.
which, first of all, is in the heart of
rather unsettled and still pickering
continent, and, secondly, is on a mar
row neck of land almost completely
surrounded by France, a country
which did not enter the conference
and which is distinctly critical of it.
All of which brings up an interest.
ing and hitherto unpublished explana-
ton Of why the conference was ever
held in Geneva. Originally the con-
ference was to have been held in
Washington, preferably. or even in
London or Tokio-any place but
Europe. Negotiations regarding the
matter between the United States,
Great Britain and Japan began as
early as last Summer when the
preparatory commission for disarma.
ment was then in session. Although
the negotiations were secret and
strictly guarded. the report leaked out
and was widely published. This
aroused all the members of the
League, who accused the United
States of trying to rob them of the
glory of achieving disarmament.
American diplomats could only coun.
ter by proposing to hold the present
conference at Geneva as sort of
supplement to the Leagues disarma
ment program.