Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-04-21
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

For the first time on record a Presi-
dent of the United States has had the
experience of having foreign critics
lecture and lanbaste America, to his
own face, for being the bad boy of the
international school. That's exactly
what happened in Washington Saturday
night, when Mr.. Hoover sat through
an hour and a half of speeches on
foreign affairs at the banquet Of the
Uncle Sans mentors were the distin-
guished guests of the evening from
abroad, Andre Geraud CPertinax)
political editor of Echo de Paris, and
H. Wioi;ham Steed, former editor of
the London Times. Between them,
they raked our role in the world fore
and aft. Geraud declared in effect
that most of Europe's troubles are due
to our scuttling from the international
ship after the war. He strongly sug-
gested that the Old World has become
tired of American advice" and pre-
fers action to pious words of counsel.
y X X
Steed was a horse of even franker
color, in discussing Americas reluc-
lance to become a fuller fledged mem
Der of the international community"
He compared our demand for naval
parity with our unwillingness to accept
parity of responsibility" In vigorous
tones. the Englishman stated that
what Europe wants to know" is
whether or not, in case of international
complications, the United States will,
or will not, take sides against the
breaker of the peace. Steed was re-
ferring to the implications of the KEEL
logg pact, at this point of his homily
on our shortcomings. He capped the
climax by disclosing that, far from
craving American membership in the
League of Nations, many Europeans
think we'd be a nuisance" at Geneva.
Then, with President Hoover at his very
elbow, the London editor Invested him.
self of this: THE time might come at
the League. when everybody else was
in agreement, but the American repre-
sentatives would have to wait for orders
from Washington. They would cable
State would run over to the executive
Offices, and then the President would
explain that nothing could be done until
it was known what Borah thought"
X X X
Just how President Hoover relished
these thrusts at our foreign policy and
at the constitutional relations between
the White House and the Senate
was not apparent. Perhaps, like
others present. he was thinking of an
historic episode in the Guildhall at
London, many years ago, when Theo..
dore Roosevelt addressed company of
eminent and startled Britishers on their
duty" in Egypt. T. r. told 'em,
roundly, that their duty was to govern
or get out" He let loose a terrific
uproar of resentment in Britain. Some
of Roosevelt's friends claimed that the
colonel, who had just come from the
Nile, spoke at the instigation of the
British authorities, who wanted to
create public sentiment in favor Of a
stronger hand in Egypt. Not all the
American opinion-molders who heard
Geraud and Steed took exception to
their apparently calculated indiscre-
tions. Some attributed them to the
fog that enveloped visitors off the
American coast for "a hours preceding
their arrival. Others held that pro
vocative" discussion of foreign affairs
is what's needed to stimulate interna-
tional thought along right lines In this
benighted country.
Senator Frederick Hale, Republican,
of Maine, who is polishing up his
microscope for examination of the Lon
don naval treaty in his naval affairs
committee, has been entertaining his
distinguished 82-year-old uncle, Judge
Clarence Hale, of the Federal bench at
Portland. The political tradition gives
| no sign of shriveling up in the Hale
clan Judge Hale's son, Robert-Sena-
tor Fred's cousins in the midst OF a
brilliant career. Elected in 1928 to the
Maine House of Representatives, young
! Bob" is now speaker of that body, is
| definitely headed for the State Senate
and the governorship, and then for ma
tional points south. Speaker Hale took