KELLOGG.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 250, 22 October 1928, Page 17

KELLOGG.

AUTHOR OF PEACE PACT.

ONCE NEARLY FORCED FROM

CABINET.

RIGHTED SHEP OP STATE.

(By DREW PEARSON.)

some queer twist of fate, an American Secretary of State, who has kept more troops in China than at any time since the Boxer wars, who sent five tfcow&nd marines and fifteen warships to Nicaragua, and who came within a hair's breadth of a break with Mexico, just joined the foremost foreign ministers' of the world in renouncing war for all time to come.

By the same twist of fate, this same Secretary of State a year ago was ndfcnled by newspapers from Buenos Aires to Berlin and from Peking to fvis.

They made fun of his naval conference *hich went on the rocks at Geneva; they predicted that he would stumble War Mexico; they could find g°°d about his Chinese policy; *™y held up Tacna-Arica as an instance M his failure as an arbitrator, and •here was nothing nasty enough for ?m to say about his conduct in Nicaragua. In fact, there seemed to be otaing good they could say about an k B. Kellogg at all. i it is not generally known n the Dominions that the man who •uccesßfully negotiated a treaty which . expected to make history, was iguteen months ago on the verge of ®g forced out of the Coolidge Cabinet lor his blunders. To-day, it is a different story. "La •won,' powerful paper of Buenos Aires, that Kellogg's name will go history, the Chinese profess eir devotion, Europe pays him homage "f even Mexico is friendly. th» B ° ne B k° r t y ear > Kellogg has rallied r>f,r Bca^ ere< i forces of American foreign e * ea t to victory. In one W* he has surprised the world by a ® ew tariff treaty with China, thp an d Peru to patch up brail- Beventeen y ear old diplomatic „ Won the friendship of Mexico, trial- a new Be " es arbitration acrai 16 f' . an< * P ers uaded Europe, rather Kinst its will at first, to accept a S ren °uncing war. men* S twelve-month accomplishing _ 18 a B tory. Not a spectacular one. conaM of hard work, some luck and considerable sagacity. K Was not an outstanding in--8t«t» tr ore became Secretary of j n ' .~ e had served only one term Dot if , ® nate ' and these six years were He » * or an y P ar ticular brilliancy. Wail ? s a good party wheel horse. He Bin** ° y !?' tireless and probably the in -u j. lcu l° us member of the Senate TftUA « g comm ittee meetings. He women's suffrage, the mateca-

ity and infancy law, and for all pension and temperance legislation. His only experience in foreign affairs was as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, although he championed the cause of the Chinese in Shantung, and bitterly opposed the payment of compensation to Colombia for Roosevelt's steal of the Panama Canal. After his defeat, he was appointed a delegate to the Pan-American Conference at Santiago, Chile, where he took orders from Henry P. Fletcher, head of the delegation, who now takes orders from Kellogg as Ambassador to Rome. It was something of a surprise in 1924 when President Coolidge appointed him as ambassador to the Court of St. James. As Vice-President and presiding officer of the Senate, Coolidge had come to know Kellogg probably better than he knew other Senators. Despite this, it was an even greater surprise when Kellogg was appointed Secretary of State. Kellogg inherited from Charles Evans Haghes a Nicaraguan situation pregnant with difficulties. A new pledge had been taken by Central Americans to support no Government set up by dictators, in the face of which American marines had been withdrawn from Nicaragua, leaving a weak coalition Government at the mercy of the powerful militarist factions. In Tacna-Arica, Kellogg also inherited difficulties, namely, a plebiscite. No plebiscite had ever before been carried out in Latin America. This particular plebiscite necessitated the return of all Chileans and Peruvians who had lived in the disputed provinces forty years before. They had scattered to the ends of the world. It also necessitated the maintenance of order and the United States had no authority to send troops to South America. Under these circumstances, Secretary Kellogg abandoned the plebiscite. In Mexico a new administration had renounced the compromise arranged by Obregon and Hughes, and had proceeded to confiscate American property. In China, Mr. Kellogg inherited no difficulties, but China is perennially difficult. All of these problems broke at the same time, and in the winter of 1927, Frank B. Kellogg was doubtless one of the most harassed and worried gentlemen in the United States. Normally frail, Kellogg was hardly able to stand up under the physical and mental strain. He took his troubles home with him. He worried about them most of the night. It was possible at that time to note a change in the secretary when he had walked to his office in the morning, while an ■ afternoon of golf worked wonders for the foreign affairs of the United States. It was at this point that his luck began to turn. It came as a result of a mid-winter vacation which he took' in South Carolina. During his absence, it became necessary for the United States to take up with the Chinese Nationalist Government the question of reparations and apologies for attacks on the American Consulate and American citizens in Nanking. The British and American Ministers in Peking had drafted identic Notes demanding that the Chinese Government make immediate amends and apologies, and warning them that failure to do so would mean the seizure of Chinese Urritagr hf British and Amori-

I can fleets. The texts of the Notes had been sent to Washington and London, j and Minister Mac Murray, confident of I their approval, prepared for a crisis. Kellogg, returning home fresh from his vacation, and having been, while in the Senate, a champion of Chinese rights, refused to approve the threat of naval action. As a result, London found itself without American support. Several weeks passed. Kellogg refused to budge from his position against any kind of coercive measures in China. Finally he won. Notes went forward not only from this country, but Britain, Japan and France, containing no threat against China. This not only won for Kellogg the sincere friendship of the Chinese, but won him many friends in the United States, and seemed to be the turningpoint in the upward trend of his foreign politics. The Mexican imbroglio was saved from complete disaster chiefly by luck. Kellogg's foreign politics went much smoother from this point on. He had been through the baptism of fire, learned considerable, and recovered his poise. Tacna-Arica he began to settle by human, rather than legal negotiations. He decided that in order to solve the sovereignty of the disputed provinces that Chile and Peru must first become friends. Accordingly, he got their delegates together at the Havana Conference last winter. He arranged luncheons for them. He saw to it that the Peruvian delegate should visit Chile, where he received an enthusiastic reception. Finally he persuaded them that they should renew the diplomatic relations which they had broken seventeen years before. However, the chief factor in Kellogg's twelve-month triumph in foreign affairs has been his refusal to quit. During the height of the Mexican-Nicaraguan-Chinese storm, there were ' constant rumours that he would resign and considerable pressure to force him out. But Kellogg would not pull down his flag. As a boy in Minnesota, he had worked winters in a law office, tending the fire, copying papers and looking up references. In the spring, he went out to earn 13 dollars a month at seeding. And in the fall he left this law office i for the harvesting. This fight for a legal education served him through his early days as a young county attorney, and later as Government counsel in breaking up the paper trust and the Standard Oil Company.

This same fighting quality is his most outstanding characteristic to-day. To those around him, it was most noticeable during the foreign affairs crises of the winter of 1927 than at any time. Every report that he was to resign made him grip his desk tighter. He was not willing to leave office until he had achieved success. And now that he has achieved it, he is far too happy to quit.