Evening star., 1929-01-04
A New Peace Treaty.

Confronted at the outset by a serious
threat of imminent war between two of
the countries represented, the Interna-
tional Conference of American States
on Cancellation and Arbitration is pre-
pairing to close a session in Washington
that will stand as a record of notable
achievement. For not only did yester-
days session witness the formal ap-
proval of new inter-American arbitra-
ton treaty and general convention
on inter-American Cancellation, prob
ably broader in scope than any similar
documents in the world, but Paraguay
and Bolivia signed a protocol agreeing
to friendly investigation of certain
phases of their own dispute. In the
heat of actual conflict Paraguay and
Bolivia thus demonstrate their willing
ness to exemplify the meaning of
treaties and conventions which usually
are drawn in the comforting atmos-
phere of peace.
Growing over the mere signing of
treaties, however, is merely another
way of counting chickens before they
are Matched. Several of the nations of
America represented at this conference
already show the natural tendency so
well known in the United States, to
becloud the clear wording of the arbi-
tration treaty with reservations. Before
the treaty signed in Washington is rati-
fed, it may take its place on that dusty
shelf where so many other fine docu-
ments have found a final resting place.
Enlarging the scope of arbitration has
always been painfully slow and tedious
process. Why, then, should one be-
lieve that the treaty now ready for
signing. which extends the principle of
arbitration to new fields. will live where
others of similar sort have died?
In announcing that the United
States has no reservation of any kind
to attach to the arbitration, Charles
Evans Hughes declared that TT is quite
obvious that it is not sufficient to re-
nounce war unless we are ready to have
recourse to the processes of peace" A
mere renunciation of war as an in
strument of national policy is a futile
and meaningless gesture unless it is
accompanied by like determination to
take practical steps toward substituting
the processes of peace" for the out
lawed processes of war. Such a step
is provided in the general arbitration
treaty now agreed to by the repre-
sentatives of the twenty nations at
tending this conference. It is not only
the natural outgrowth of the long series
of pan-American conferences which for
so long have sought to enlarge the
scope of arbitration, but comes as the
natural sequel to the signing of the
Kellogg treaty.
The treaty of arbitration has been
drawn in accordance with the resolution
of the pan-American conference at
Havana last year, which proposed a
treaty of obligatory arbitration with re-
spect to juridical questions. The treaty
| goes so far as to define juridical ques-
tions broadly as those susceptible OF
decision by the application of the prin-
ciples of international law. Issues be-
tween states which cannot come under
the purview of the treaty are those
within the domestic jurisdiction of any
of the parties to the dispute and no
controlled by international law, or thos'
which affect the interest or refer t.
the action of party not party to tht
treaty.
The hope OF the world is that tht
views of the nations which must ratif,
this treaty will be ss broad as the in
strument itself.