Evening star., 1929-10-04
VISIT PARELLE:LS
1921 ARMS PARLE:Y
Macdonald Hoover Confer
ence Called One of Great
est Events in History,
Ely MARK SULLIVAN.

The subject which Prime Minister
Ramsay Macdonald and President
Hoover will discuss will be the latest
and very novel phase Of what has been
the chief concern of great nations since
nations existed. To say the coming
conversation viii be unique would not
be quite accurate. but its only parallel
in all history was the analogous con-
ference for naval reduction which took
place in Washington eight years ago.
If one were painting the background
of the coming drama, one would begin
with vast perspective OF the fighting
ships of all time, lengthening backward
through the caravels of Spain to the
triremes of Tyre. To give the Key to
latest act, one would say that always
there has been one nation holding
primacy on the seas. Always that po-
Sition has been the most priced possess
sion of the nation holding 1t and the
most envied by other nations. The
long and colorful succession OF nations
that have held primacy on the sea,
each losing it in turn to another. has
included Tyre, Venice, Portugal, Spain,
Holland. France and Britain.
Britain, after holding her primacy
for about a century and a half, was
challenged by Germany. Primacy on
the sea was the place in the sum
which the Kaiser coveted. 1t was, dra-
matically, on the 1St day of January,
1900. that the Kaiser grandiosely an
nounced his intention to build navy
equal to his army. Which would enable
the German empire Ito win the place
which it has not yet attained" Ger
many, coveting the place, tried to take
it away from Great Britain. Germany
failed but the war so weakened Britain
that both contenders saw the prize fall
to an innocent and uncovetous, even
reluctant bystander.
Step of Sclf-DeniaI in 1921.
At the end of the great war, by every
rule of logic and every precedent OF
history, the United States was destined
to have dominance on the sea. America
had become much the richest and most
powerful nation in the world. Infallibly,
naval supremacy would have come 10
America as an incident of its economic
supremacy. In 1916 President Wood
row Wilson, pushed by the logic of
events rather than by personal or ma
tional vainglory, announced in a speech
at ST. Louis that America must have
"incomparably the greatest navy In
the world.
Thereupon we actually started on the
program of naval construction Whlcn
would have given us the leadership on
the sea. that would correspond with our
position in the world. Then, in 1921, we
took a step of self-denial unparalleled
in all history. The one man more re-
sponsible than any other was Senator
Borah President Harding had vague
aspiration toward calling a conference
for naval limitation; but Hardlngs
easygoing temperament and procrasti-
mating habit of mind would hardly have
arrived at decisive action. Borah, W
an amendment to the naval approprla-
ton bill of 1921, forced the calling OF
the conference.
At the opening of the conference in
November, 1921, Secretary of State
Charles E. Hughes made probably the
most sensational and certainly the most
self-denying proposal ever made in be-
half of any nation that had supreme
sea power within its easy grasp. Mr..
Hughes proposed in effect, and the con-
ference agreed, that naval supremacy
should no longer be held by any one
nation, but that it should be. so to
speak. trusted" in a mutual agreement
with America and Great Britain having
equal shares, and the other nations ap-
propriately lesser shares.
The Washington conference covered
mainly battleships, leaving cruiser ton
mage unlimited. In 1927, in a prolonged
conference at Geneva. President Cool
idge asked Great Britain to agree to
parity and limitation of cruisers. That
conference failed, for reasons that are
to this day matter of acute contro-
versy. When Mr.. Hoover became Presi-
dent last March as one of his first i'm
portant acts he approached the British
with a proposal for understanding
looking to parity. reduction and limi-
tation of cruisers and all other seat
power.
Understanding Reached.
From March until this very morning
the carrying on of this negotiation with
Great Britain has been the one among
many burdens upon which President
Hoover's mind has been most continu-
ously focused. His progress was favored
Ey the fortunate fact that there had
come into power in Great Britain
prime minister as sympathetic to such
a proposal as Mr.. Hoover himself.
Through exchange of countless mes
sages, by infinite patience with intri-
cate details of relative naval potency,
and announced four weeks ago. Mr..
MacDonalds visit is to complete the
details of understanding so far as they
can properly be completed in advance
of the general conference next Janu-
ary, in which other nations will be
The meeting between blacksmith's
son from West Branch, Iowa, and a
son of peasant farmer stock from Los
Scotland, will appeal to the
of those who realize that
today's newspaper can contain drama
as colorful and history on rather
larger scale than any book that deals
with Greece or Rome. AS it happens,
the richness and magnetism of the per-
sonality of the British statesman who
is visiting us is as appealing as his
errand is exalted. The man equally
with the occasion justifies the degree to