Evening star., 1928-11-18
Hoover Administration to Be Marked
By New International Relationships

| commerce destruction, they need large
array of, say, 7,000-ton six-inch gun
cruisers, and not bigger ones. Very well.
| Who shall say how many of the bigger
ones are the battle equivalent OF how
many of the smaller ones? There is no
answer The requirements of the
| two navieS are on this point radically
different and wholly irreconcilable in
any formula that will please Washing
! ton and London both.
| We must then do one of two things,
| If we wish to keep America and British
competitive naval building from go
ing extravagantly and perilously beyond
bounds. We must put forth the power
of our American economic superiority
and build so many cruisers that we will
force the British Empire to its knees
and oblige 1t to capitulate to the
formula which we have suggested and
which gives us what we want. and
which we believe to be right. Or else
| we must struggle along without any
| formula at all and we must check naval
competition through the evok;ng and
creating of a new atmosphere Of per-
sonal intercourse, personal friendship
and personal compromise between the
statesmen of the two countries.
The prospect at this moment is that
we shall start on the first of these two
courses, the course of outright chal-
lenge, while preparing also to Super-
sede it, II possible, by understandings
and adjustments drawn from better
and closer personal relationship be-
taries of state and British ministers for
foreign affairs.
1t is the opinion of Washington that
Prime Minister Baldwin of Great Brit
ain and President-elect Hoover of the
United States are peculiarly destined to
inaugurate q new era OF international
diplomacy based less on public COM
bative conference and more on personal
quiet conversations. Mr.. Baldwin, in a
recent speech, has referred to the con-
sequences Of the conversations and Of
the intimate personal friendships be-
| tween the governor of the Bank of
France, the governor of the Bank of
England, the president of the German
Reichsbank and the governor Of the
Federal Reserve Bank Of New York.
$3.50
Washington does not doubt that the
| negotiations between those four gentle-
men, conducted without a press gallery
and concluded without treaties, are
striking proof OF the. almost 1ncal--
culable value of personal contacts and
of personal honor and good will and
good humor In international affairs.
When M. Rist of the French bank
| ing system and Mr.. Norman of the
English banking system and Mr.. Strong
of the American banking system could
meet---as they did-not necessarily at
the offices of Mr.. Ogden Mills, the I'm
| dersecretary of the American Treasury,
but at Mr.. Mills home and spend to-
gether q whole week end of long days
and long evenings Of informal and even
casual interchanges Of Views. what was
the result? The result was that they
arrived ultimately at decisions which
adjusted the economic demands Of the
four countries, and which consolidated
the economic framework of the world,
with barely ripple Of public contro-
versy or public recrimination.
They arrived at those achievements
largely because they came to have q
personal confidence and a personal re-
| gard toward one another. The Ques-
| ton now arises both on this side Of
| the Atlantic and on the other:
II the economic managers OF America
and of Europe can be personal friends,
why not the political managers? If the
| economic managers can deal hand in
hand. why must the political managers
be always dealing pen against pen? In
these days of fast communication, why
should an American Secretary of State
and a British minister for foreign af-
| fairs ever be strangers to each other?
Why should not the worlds diplomacy
be at least as human as the worlds
business?
It seems certain to Washington that
| the more formal methods of diplomatic
effort-such as general arbitration
treaties-have come slap-up against the
final limits of their values. We have
recently negotiated great multitude Of
new g~..eral arbitration treaties with
foreign governments all over the world,
and we shall add to the number In the
Pan-American arbitration and concilia-
ton conference here next month, but
the following facts remain:
/. Our outstanding controversy with
Europe Is regarding allied debts and
German reparations. and we have not
the slightest intention of arbitrating 1t
or submitting 1t to any sort Of inter-
national judicial or political tribunal
whatsoever
2. Our most instant alteration with
Latin America Is on the point of our
tariff duty on corn, which hits and
hurts Argentina, and there Is no slight
est chance that we will now or ever sub
nit our tariff schedules to international
, adjudication.
! In these circumstances Washington
looks with hope to Mr., Hoover's well
known passion for getting things set
tied less by formal enactment" than
by informal Cooperation" He takes
essentially the same view of interna-
tional treaties that he takes Of domes-
tic laws He regards laws not as q first
aid, but as a last recourse. He regards
treaties as valuable. but he has out
rightly said that our chief International
~ a.