Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-03-23
FRENCH AND ANCLO-SAXON
PEACE VIEWS CANNOT MEET
Both Sides Are Declared Honest in
Holding to Mutually Exclusive
Demands.

even before the London conference.
But at the Naval Conference 1t again
came instantly to the fore. The United
States and Britain had already settled
their own rather childish dispute over
parity and at the Rapidan Hoover and
Macdonald had outlined a program
which amounted to actual reduction Of
the British programs and the arrest Of
the American at practically the exist
ing prospectus for parity. But Sll this
agreement naturally rested upon the as
sumption that France would agree to
keep her naval program In such relation
to the British as to perpetuate the two
power standard, which is the basis Of
British security In European waters.
France, on the other hand, having
money now to build, or more exactly,
to rebuild the fleet she had possessed
before the war, feet out of proportion
to the two-power standard, instantly
demanded as the price Of bringing her
fleet into harmony with Anglo-Saxon
desires that she should receive from
Britain and the United States certain
political guarantees. And this meant,
in plain words, that France asked that,
II she reduced her own naval establish
ment to satisfy Britain and the United
States, these countries should on their
side guarantee that France should not
suffer thereby. She asked, in effect, for
b4AG uoC Va SAlA1C11Cd11 dIlu G9IIGlSl SQlDS
II she was not to build French.
AngIo-Saxon Minds Astounded.
Such demand was totally incompre-
hensible to American and British minds.
To both, reduction seemed a simple
process. The way to reduce was to re-
duce, the method of limitation was
limiting. The idea that Britain or
America should be asked to guarantee
French gan7IPifxy
Italy as the price Of French reduction
OF building programs seemed prepos-
ferrous and even sInacked of blackmail.
But Anglo-SaXon refusal was equally
tncomprehensible to the French mind.
II the Anglo-Saxons were right and war
was in fact made impossible by the
Kellogg pact, what danger would these
nations run by giving France a guar
antee against a now unthinkable war?
But II they refused the guarantee then
clearly they did not regard war as I'M
thinkable, and were trying to make
France run all the risks so that Britain
might cheaply retain the two-power
standard and the United States Just as
cheaply acquire parity with Britain.
Both peoples regarded the views of the
other as absurd and both with equal
ease passed a challenge Of good faith
and peaceful intent.
Patiently, it IS possible to take the
British and American views and de.
nounce France as n1ilitaristic, Just as
France and q large portion Of the con.
tinent regard the Anglo American view .
as transparent and utter hypocrisy. But
the task Of any objective student Of In
ternational affairs, as of any historian
Of the Naval Conference, must be to
establish the fact that one Is not here
In the presence Of q quarrel between
right and wrong, between peace loving
and milltariStic national ideas, but Of O
collision between two equally honest
conceptions equally unanimously held
groups in each which are most sincere
IN their advocacy Of peace and their
search for means to insure it.
Satisfactory Outcome Impossible.
Whether the result ct London turns
out to be compromise between these
two views as Paris did or, Is seems
more likely, the recognition that they
are trreconcilable prevents any salts
perceive IS that the two conceptions
viii survive the conference, and, until
they are In some way adjusted, will re-
turn to plague every later conference as
they have bedevilled this meeting and
all others since the days Of the Paris
Peace Conference.
What Is at once amusing and rather
pathetic Is that each time French and
Americans meet at an international
conference, both come convinced that
this time the other has at last aban.
doned its mistaken ideas and seen the
true light And when this proves not
to be the case we have the same equally
irrelevant storm of denunciation.
(Copyrisf1t, 1901