Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-03-30
HOOVER-M'DONALD FARLEY
is CALLED FIRST BLUNDER
Premier's Visit Angered France, OBJ
server Declares in Pointing Out Five
mistakes of Naval Steps.

destroy the last VSStlg6 OF IalJn GElaG the
London Conference was in truth a re-
duction conference, thus disappointing
the pacifiSts and idealists, and at the
same time awakening the apprehension
and even protest of champions of the
big Navy To get parity with Britain
we had to build, not scrap, but our
building program announced in London
outraged the pacifists, while our scrap
ping program reported by the Secretary
of State disquieted the navalists.
The fourth blunder was made by
Tardieu He had just won a notable
success at The Hague Conference. Hav-
ing taken Office with a scratch govern
ment and, after a long severe struggle at
the Dutch capital. having achieved a
sweeping victory, he came to London
satisfied that his home situation was
safe and that he would be able to gain
new laurels abroad while he was i'm
mune from attack at home. In this be-
lief he fingered on in London for the
first fortnight sessions.
Italy BIunders in Stand.
But France was not interested in the
London Conference. Reports of new
successes of the French premier did not
in the least interrupt the politicians in
the Chamber of Deputies from organ
izing a conspiracy to turn Tardfeu out.
The result was that Tardieu returned
from London after a fortnight, during
which he had manifestly been the
dominating figure, only to fall abruptly
was only temporarily costly to Tardieu,
it paralyzed the Naval Conference for
nearly a month and produced evil con-
sequences beyond eXaggeration.
The last in the series of plumbers was
that of Mussolini directly and Grand,
his representative, indirectly. Like
BRAND before the Washington Confer
ence, Mussolini seems to have diagnosed
the London affair as a struggle In
which Italy could safely base its course
upon the general idea of rushing to the
the scene of a battle between France
and the English-speaking countries, and
Italy was to get what she wanted by
supporting Britain and the United
States against France.
The difficulty lay in the fact that
what Italy wanted was nothing more
nor less than prestige prize. Italy
had a small fleet, not two-thirds OF the
French; Italy was patiently too poor at
the moment to build it up to the French
level, but to satisfy the Fascist pro-
nunciamentos Italy was to claim and
get parity with France. The trouble
was that France had a larger navy and
money to carry out its naval program.
Italy is Left in Corner.
In such a case, when France frankly
laid her figures on the table openly and
offered to modify them if other nations
either did the same or joined to give
her that security pact which she de-
sired Italy was left in a corner. She
had no real figures to present, she had
not the smallest intention of building.
Thus in due course of time Grand
found himself not only aiding the
Anglo-Saxon nations against France,
but actually subjected to pressure by
the Anglo-Saxon representatives to
drop his vanity values and to come
down to actual building programs. But,
committed as he and his master were
to the single issue of parity, the path
way for both was difficult, and another
vexation was added to the many of the
Naval Conference.
Japanese Stick and Win.
And what of the Japanese? Did they,
too, make a blunder? No. At London,
as at Washington and Geneva and at
Paris, all three, they knew what they
wanted. They restricted their demands
to the limits of the possible, if not rea-
sonable, and they awaited the moment
to press these demands when every one
else needed them Before the japanese
delegation left Toxic it announced that
the japanese demand would be for
ratio of 20 per cent in auxiliary craft
instead of the Washington ratio of so
per cent in battleships, and as I write
now, with the conference still unended,
they have obtained 69.7 per cent. And
If the London Conference has proved
anything, it has demonstrated once
more the unmistakable fact that, in
diplomacy at least, the East has moth
ing to learn from the West. do not
know whether japanese diplomacy
should be described as old-fashioned or
new, but whatever the adjective, the
fact is that it is the goods" It makes
no mistakes, loses no opportunities,
carries of the prizes and escapes all
criticism for performances which are
angrily denounced in the case of all
others.
Copyright, 1900