Evening star., 1927-11-20
BY WILLIAM HARD.
- TATE DEPARTMENT circles
and Latin American diplo-
matte circles in Washington

~ TATE DEPARTMENT circles
and Latin American diplo-
matte circles in Washington
~ were amazed at this week end
to discover that at Havana
next January, in the Sixth Interna-
tional Conference of American States.
they will be confronted with n semi
official full-blown scheme for what
amounts to an American League of
Nations. standing off parallel to the
League of Nations at Geneva.
This sudden enlightenment and dis
covery proceeds from a reading of
Topic Two in the official program of
the Havana conference. The first point
which will be considered under Topic
Two, at almost the very outset of
the conference, is scheduled to be "a
consideration of the results of the
commission of jurists which as
sembled at Rio de Janeiro." Under
that innocent heading there now lies.
Il M found. a project OF the most
far-reaching political consequences
both for the Old World and the New.
Would Exclude League.
The jurists who met at Rio last
Spring were representatives, by Off
: cial appointment, of II of the Il
American Republics. Their delibera-
terest by officials of the League of
Nations at Geneva. Those officials
have since announced that they in
tend "to take into account the extern
sive and remarkable effort at the
codification of international law
made" at Rio under the auspices of
the governments of the Western
Hemisphere and of the Pan-American
Union. 1t now seems that the word
remarkable" in that statement must
be regarded as an extremely mild
and tame word in view of the
extraordinary and revolutionary pro-
posals which have been transmitted
from the conference of jurists at Rio
TO the approaching conference OF
diplomats of the Western Hemisphere
at Havana.
Those proposals aim ultimately at
nothing less than the total exclusion
OF the League of Nations at Geneva
from all participation in the settle
n1ent of international affairs on this
side of the Atlantic. They aim. that
is. at ending the obligation which now
rests upon Latin American states be-
longing to the League to take their
controversies to the League Council or
Assembly. This intention has been
frankly expressed by the famous
Scott, who was a delegate from the
United States to the Rio gathering.
DIR. Scott has said that the code of
public international law adopted at
Rio for transmission to Havana lis
the first step in what will be a final
outcome" and he defines that final
outcome as follows:
Would Disrupt League.
{ "American tribunals of arbitration
composed of American members for
the adjustment of American disputes,
and American courts of justice COM
posed of American judges for the de-
cision Of American controversies.
5 1t is perfectly clear that if the
whole scheme of the jurists of Rio
should be adopted by the conference
at Havana and should subsequently
be ratified by the governments of the
Western Hemisphere, it would mean
the partition and disruption of the
League of Nations at Geneva and the
condemnation of it to a future only
European and Asiatic and not at all
American. This result would flow
most especially from the new and
astonishing powers which it is pro-
posed to give to the Pan-American
Union. That union consists of the
aI American Republics, and it is gov
erned by a board composed of the
Secretary of State of the United
States and Of the 20 Latin American
ambassadors or ministers resident in
the City of Washington.
The Pan-American Union today is
highly valuable body devoted to the
furtherance and improvement of every
variety of non-political intercourse be-
tween the American republics. Its
pon-political character has been one
its chief assets. 1t has retained
Af good will of all America, because
A has had nothing to do with the
nnfa rrels between American states.