The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1930-02-15
A Disappointing Conference

"A O~lcdppOlIlUlIlS SUll1cI CllCC
It Is difficult to have an opinion about the London
naval limitation conference. 1t is a dense subject like
the Einstein theory Of relatively. There seems to be
something very much like backing and filling about the
proceedings. Sticking out of it from all points are in
dications that somebody mistrusts somebody else or is
jockeying to take advantage of somebody else's gulibil-
ity. For an American it all is very disappointing. 1t Is
q super. optimistic peace enthusiast who can derive any
satisfaction from 1t thus far, for it hasn't talked anything
that sounds like peace since the Introductory words
were spoken with such a ring of apparent sincerity.
Since then all that has been discussed is how many ships
the participating nations may build Under a limitations
agreement, and in each instance it seems the limit is
upward.
Beyond doubt the delegates are doing their best Pre-:
mier Macdonald and Secretary Stimson, the two leading
spirits in the conference, are quite obviously sincere. A
genuine desire for peace is evident in all quarters.
But somehow the whole business is very uneXciting. It
lacks the spectacular thrill of the Washington conference
Of 1921. There has been no grand gesture, no startling,
chance-taking action or suggestion OF action.
In 1921 the thing was handled better.
The conference then was hardly begun when Secre-
tary Hughes got to his feet and took the worlds breath
away by announcing that the United States would toss
half . dozen great battleships onto the %scrapheap if 9TH
Or nations would do the same.
His announcement instantly put opponents Of naval
reduction on the defensive. The Washington conference
We8 q real step away from war, ana IL owed most OF us
success to Hughes dramatic opening gesture.
But the London conference-well, to date most of the
delegates time has been spent in ~quibbling about the
agsuda. Diplomatic sparring has been the order of the
day. Statesmen duck from one private confab to an
other. There has not been a grand, inspiring gesture
to rivet the worlds attention.
Why not? We were led to expect one. Last fall Presi-
dent Hoover announced that the United States was ready
to cut its navy as low as any other nation would go. Any
reduction that might be proposed, he said, cannot be too
low for u.s."
Yet when the British, at London, proposed the aboli-
ton of all battleships, did the American delegation in
stautly accept the proposition and back it to the limit?
It did not. Instead it cautiously submitted a counter
proposal, which seems to leave the United States under
the necessity of building a good many more ships than
It now possesses. Indeed, the latest report is that the
American proposal includes the construction by this
country OF a brand-new super-dreadnaught!
The average newspaper reader, by this time, has doubt
simply ignoring the lengthy news articles about them.
These daily stories are too hard to wade through. They
IRE. to but it bluntly, dull and boresomc. A diplomatic
chess game Is In progress: and 1t might be remembered
that Is a game at which European diplomats are ordi-
narily far more skillful than Americans.
Whatever the upshot of the London conference may
be. the stage-managing, to date, has been poor. There
has been nothing to fire peoples imaginations, as the
American proposal of 1921 fired them. And that is pre-
eiseIy the thing that is necessary If any enthusiams for
naval reduction is to be generated.