Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-07-18

favor am permitted to be here today
outside of the shadow of garrote which
is soon to be put upon us. One might
think, from reading the Record this
morning, that the Republican leader
deems my absence from the Senate to
be illegitimate. I deemed it to be i'm
perative. I may add that I was absent
from Washington just So hours, SIS of
which I spent in travelling"
Says Few Informed.
Senator Moses left Washington be-
cause of death in his family.
In his formal speech to the Senate.
Mr.. Moses said:
THE pitiful thing about this treaty
is that so few people know anything
about it and that so many people care
nothing about it.
This treaty comes to us either too
early or too late. incline to the be-
lief that both of these criticisms may
lie against it.
If the merits of the instrument are
so obscure or so imperfect that they
short time between now and Autumn,
it Is probable that the treaty contains
so many defects that 1t ought not to
be ratified at ALL In other words, IL
this treaty must decay instead of ripen
beneath the suns of Summer it GER
tainly contains germs; of destruction
which we should try to avoid.
Negotiations Began Early.
GAS pointed out In the message of the
President urging prompt ratification Of
the instrument the negotiations prece-
dent to its drafting began q year ago.
The probability IS that they really began
earlier than that. At any rate, we do
know that one Of the first essays put
forth by our present ambassador in
London was with reference to the ne
COLLATION. of this instrument. We do
know that it is well-nigh year since
the charming and seductive Prime
Minister of England visited us, and in
this very Chamber babe us to take
parity without reserve, heaped up and
flowing over We do know that 1t Is
fully nine months since the work was
begun of preparing the agenda for the
London Conference. We do know that
the plenipotent iaries-aided by o vast
number of naval experts who were rarely
called upon to render their opinion and
by a corps of super -nun1eraries such as
always attend an international confer
ence-spent IA weeks in preparing the
instrument which we are asked to rattfy
out of hand.
1--WE know, further, that, except for q
few fragmentary and unimportant por-
tons of the incunabula which were
heaped up as the plenipotentiaries
labored, we have been denied our con-
stitutional right Of access to the papers
which mark the steps by which the
treaty. was finally put upon paper.
Under these circumstances, continue
to maintain that we are asked to deal
with this treaty untimely. It should
reach us at time after the negotiating
power has shown willingness to share
the constitutional prerogative which has
been set up for treaty making. 1t should
reach us after a time when the mem
beers of the Senate have had full oppor-
tunity TO. explore, to discuss and to de-
termine the propriety of the antecedent
and attendant circumstances which
surrounded the work of the conference.
1t should reach us after a time when
Senators, refreshed by brief vacation,
could give alert and attentive study to
the doc dment in all of its implications.
Instead of all this, we are handed
the document with sparse and incon-
elusive statements of its purpose and
are told somewhat Superciliously by the
Laird Of Stanmore that we must take
it or leave 1t in its nakedness.
Delegates "PIiabIe."
ITO this doctrine, acting as one Of
the agents of the Senate in its Com
mittee on Foreign Relations, have al-
ready diSsented continue to dissent
on the floor. have recorded my opin-
ion of the indecent haste with which
this instrument Is being forced upon US,
and I have not diluted that opinion.
I'VE could have had treaty like this
three years ago. The conference at
Geneva met under exactly the same
conditions which surrounded the assem-
bling Of the conference at London-save
this The American delegates at Geneva
were less pliable than those at London.
The conditions which the BritiEh dele
gates put forth at Geneva as prerequisite
to the making Of treaty differed In no
essential feature-if, indeed. they differ
at all in actual form of words-from the
proposals put forward by the British
delegates at London. I should add here,
of course, that I can not speak with
teXtual authority on this point, because
we have been denied the papers which
would reveal to- us In official terms ex-
actly what the British proposed. But
it is safe to say from all the collateral
evidence which we have been able to
CLEAN that the British carried their
point-otherwise there would have been
no treaty.
"Nor do we know from any oficial
document what proposals were set
forth by our delegates. From the re-
suits we are free to assume that they
| announced in advance that they would
accept whatever our British cousins
chose to hand out TO us. At any rate,
| that is what has been brought back
| from London, namely, sacrifice OF
the principle of the 8-inch-gun cruiser
for our Navy, a principle which we
maintained at Geneva, which was de-
MED to us at Geneva, and which con-
stituted the point upon which the
Geneva Conference finally failed.
I'VE are told that the treaty before
us is the only treaty obtainable at Lon
don. Evidently it was also the only
treaty obtainable at Geneva, but at
Geneva Calvin Coolidge refused to &C
cept such treaty.
| by way of further apology for the
| instrument we are told that certain oil
| the British domii1icns, notably those
( which lie nearest to the Japanese en-
pire, refused their sanction TO O treaty
| in terms other than that which We
! now have before us. Since when, Mr.
President, has the United States beer
accustomed to limit It's treaty forms bJ
conditions set up by subsidiary portionl