“No Last Words Between Friends”

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 221, 14 June 1930, Page 19

“No Last Words Between Friends”

THE new Naval Agreement will be but for a limited space of time. The ideals will persist—the inadequate effort to give them full substance and effect will expire by its own limitation, and a new conference will undertake once more to embody in an‘international agreement the determination of far-seeing statesmen to rid their people of the crushing burden of steady preparation for war. To accustom the governments of the world to the thought that a matter which, viewed superficially, seems so wholly national as the power of a navy, may be a fit subject for International conference is in itself a great achievement. The influence to that end exerted by the Washington conference has been continued and enhanced by the meetings at London. When considered in the light of history, the very fact that these conferences were held at all is an impressive evidence of the rise of the spirit of harmony and peace among statesmen of varying nationalities. In what earlier century could five proud and sovereign nations have agreed to send delegates to sit about a board and discuss the number of battleships each might maintain? What record is there in history of any such international gathering in which the study of each delegation was to

maintain relations of amity and co-operation with all others? Out of the prolonged and .intimate associations of these can come nothing but a kindlier spirit and a comprehension of the problems of each that will make future negotiations vastly easier. Moral suasion in the League of Nations at Geneva alone has sufficed in every instance—a force that would be Impotent except for the fact that the League delegates, like the London delegates, knew each other and could discuss affairs in controversy like reasonable and friendly men. Indeed, there is apparent a growing sentiment that the existence of the Paris peace pact makes all sanctions, save economic ones, illogical and improper. , Should this feeling result in the material amendment of the sections providing for the employment of force in support of League decrees, the League, like the London conference, would be great mainly for its moral influence. The delegates to London have shown considerable patience and toleration in their work. They have followed the soothing maxim of the late W. J. Bryan, “There is no last word between friends."—“Christian Science Monitor.”