Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-01-19
AMERICA, UNLUCKY THREE
TIMES. In FOURTH FARLEY
observers Declare Europe Cannot Lose
~ Anything by London
Conference.

stood forth defending that superiority
which had been hers for three centuries
While, in the end, rupture at Geneva
came over the trivial detail of the cal
ibers of guns, the true explanation OF
the rupture was far more considerable.
President Coolidge had called the con-
ference convinced that it would be pos
sible to obtain parity by conversation
and not by construction and that Brit
ain would be ready to reduce its vast
cruiser feet to such limits as would
enable us to acquire parity cheaply.
The British, on their side, interpreted
the Presidents gospel of economy as
meaning that the United States would
never spend the money to acquire equal
ity by construction and British SUI
premacy could be retained by refusal
to reduce.
The effect of the Paris conference
had been to reanimate all American
faith in the old doctrine of isolation,
the result of the Washington conference
was to produce a slow-burning susp1-
cion of Great Britain, which repre-
sented the survival of an old unhappy
memory. But Geneva, in its turn, pro-
duced a real explosion which launched
the United States on the most consider
able program of naval construction OF
the postwar era.
1t is, then, apparent that all the
American conferences have been I'M
lucky. Looking further afleld to the
record of the similar meetings in Eu-
rope, the tale is hardly different. I re-
member in 1925 meeting in Paris an old
friend of mine, who is one of the we'll
known French journalists. Since
saw you last at the Paris conference"
he said, II have been to 80 conferences,
all of which have failed"
Two Only Successful.
In point of fact, there have been so
far but two wholly successful interna-
tional meetings since the close of the
war, the London conference of 1924
which framed the Dawes plan, and the
more picturesque meeting in Locarno,
which eliminated in those famous
treaties that for nearly five years have
contributed to the readjustment of
Franco German relations and the grad
ual arrival of tranquility in Europe.
The explanation of this success is dis
coverable in the simple fact that, as
consequence of all the events between
the armistice and the occupation of the
Ruhr, Europe as a whole, all European
peoples equally, perceived that without
some adjustment, without some agree
ment, complete ruin was just around the
corner.
In 1924, Britain was sinking under
the burden of unemployment. Germany
had gone to catastrophe bankruptcy,
the franc was following the mark. In
that hour some workable agreement be-
tween France, Germany and Britain
had become equally necessary to all
three. And, of course, the Locarno
agreement of 1925 was only the politi-
cal complement to the economic settle
ments Of the Dawes plan.
Today, concomitantly with the Lon
don Conference, another meeting is TAX
ing place at The Hague. which is occu-
pied with the final adjustments incident
to the substitution of the Young plan
for the Dawes plan. When these nego-
tiations are successfully terminated
and success is hardly to be doubted
the economic phase of peace making
will have been completed. And since
agreement at The Hague will fore
shadow the prompt evacuation of the
Rhineland and the Saar, one can say
that at last, after IL years, the war is
actually over.
Europe Not Now Afraid.
But if success at London in 1924 and
at Locarno in 1925 was due to the pres
sure Of unacceptable necessities, one must
see that no such urge is operating at
London. No fear of impending war
drives the statesmen there gathered to
make those sacrifices of national inter-
est which are necessary. On the COLI
trary, Europe-at least in so far as
France. Britain, Germany and Italy are
concerned-is patiently peaceful in pur-
pose and without any immediate appre-
hension for the future.
That is why it is possible, no matter
what happens at London, to view this
latest conference as resembling the
process by which, as a ship approaches
land, the lead is cast to find bottom.
Not the first time nor even the twen-
tieth is the bottom reached. This is
not a proof that land is not near at
hand, but only that the first soundings
were premature, although by no means
unnecessary. Vast good might result
from the London Conference II the
single actual result were to give each
country a clear view of the reasons
which underly the policies of the other
nations.
And. by contrast. the only consider
able danger that the conference can
have lies not in the possibility that
failure would threaten peace, but only
that the clash Of these several national
conceptions. equally expressive Of the
intellect and the conscience of the re-
spective peoples. might lead to new re-
sentiments and fresh determinations and
thus postpone later achievements.
tCopyrisht, 1900