Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-02-23
NAVAL CONFERENCE LACKS
DOMINATING PERSONALITY
Robinson Is Most Conspicuous United
State Delegate, While Morrow
Is Most Active.

been the most activef and, from the
point of negotiation, the man VINO mas
done the most delicate tasks on our
side In the first stages Morrow's job
was patiently to find out the French
state of mind, to examine difncultles
and seek means for dealing with both
psychological and practical difficulties.
And il was not "a hours after Tardieu
arrived before the French premier and
the American Ambassador became
measurably the diplomatic leaders Of
the drama. The first time I saw Tar
dieu he said to me, Il believe Morrow
and are going to do something" And
from that point onward Franco-Aner-
lean relations became, as they have re-
NAMED wholly cordial, largely, think,
because Morrow convinced Tardieu that
so far from opposition of French views
he found sympathy in the American
delegation.
But the French difficulty was soon
abolished. In point of fact, Tardieu's
success at The Hague, thanks to Brit
ish support, had removed much i'll will
created by the Snowden episode at the
first Hague conference. AS a conse-
quence it was only few days before
Morrow was drawing up proposals
which might compose Franco-I Italian
difficulties Thus If you say Robinson
was the political director and Morrow
the diplomatic agent you give an ac-
curate notion of the actual situation in
the American delegation. Adams stood
always ready to speak for his Navy, but
limited his mission to this. Gibson was
an invaluable adviser both in the mat
ter of past conferences and present per-
SonalitieS. Dawes was utterly in the
background. But Robinson and Morrow
were real forces.
Conference Lacks High Lights.
And yet, compared with all the con-
ferences I have ever known, this has
been lacking in exactly the things the
editors and columniSts like to call high
lights and personalities. Win Rogers
tried to find these, gave the task I'D and
fled home early. Mencken. followed a.
little later and with equal disgust.
Rogers got the best laugh visiting Ber-
nard Shaw, not the conference, and
Mencken was only moved when the
Rotary Club message was read in the
press conference.
Actually there has been about the
whole affair rather the character of
a business conference, a meeting of
doors. To stir the popular pulse one
beat, to raise the public temperature
one degree by recounting desperate
struggle between categoriStS and glob-
ulars has been beyond the powers of
the combined and assorted writing
genius of 40 nations and continents
here represented.
More and more the main issue took
the form of q business deal; reports
of sessions resembled the information
one may collect from a hurried glance
at the stock ticker. Quotations in
tonnages, fluctuations in submarines
and cruisers, these were the daily lar
vest of news.
There never was but one sensation
and that came when Stimson, wrongly
informed that the Chicago Tribune had
got hold OF the secret of his cruiser
program, hastily summoned the press
to a night conference and announced
his own figures. But this sensation,
which for day provoked British and
for three disturbed French temper, had
no consequence.
suppose when all is said and done
the conference has been dull because
nothing but fight or series of fights
could make interesting a conference
actually concerned in mathematics.
Moreover. because not only the dele
gates, but the whole world, expected
the conference to be enlivened by pic
turesque clashes between indignant
statesmen. the absence of all such high
lights gave 1t a drab aspect of anti
climax.
Dinner Instead of Duel.
There was moment when it seemed
possible that Tardieu and Grandi might
come into sharp collision, but instead
of duel there was a dinner, and all
later differences had pure pickwickian
favor. Sometimes there was a slight
crackle of musketry fire between the
national presses of the British and
French and the French and italian, but
invariably it died down without produc-
ing any grand attack.
Years ago some wag described one of
the almost innumerable postwar inter-
national gatherings as a conference to
end conferences. In certain sense this
has been the conference to do that trick.
1t takes the suspense and drama which
belong only to issues of war and peace
to give a conference real popular appeal
or actual dramatic quality. And, praise
heaven, that element has gone. Instead
a lot of lawyers and business men have
sat down TO deal with the adjustment
Of shipping tonnage, and have differed,
argued and compromised. The captains
and kings who made the earlier confer
ences memorable have departed. And,
in a word, we have had for the first
time not peace conference but con-
ference in peace. If there ever was any
doubt as to the fact that the war is
over, this conference has demolished it.
Copyright, 1900