Evening Post. MONDAY, AUGUST 15, 1921. THE PRESIDENT'S FORMAL CALL

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 39, 15 August 1921, Page 6

Evening Post. MONDAY, AUGUST 15, 1921. THE PRESIDENT'S FORMAL CALL

President Harding's formal invitations to the Disarmament and Pacific Conference are worthy of the great occasion. He states the danger of the new competition. in armaments as clearly as any pacifisb could desire, while 1 the facts that his own country has been leading in the race, and can better afford: than any other Power to keep it up; gives a unique weight to his words. The advantage which not merely the United States but the world may derive from the great advance in naval construction which was begun by ex-President Wilson and Mr. Daniels, and has been carried on by their successors, is now apparent. When the Democrats" were in power, their advocacy of an American navy second to none was obviously inspired to a large extent by their desire to strengthen the case for the League of Nations. Inside the League, America could afford to beat her swords into ploughshares and her spears into pruning-hooks, because other nations would be doing the same. Standing outside the League she could not afford to be inferior in naval strength to any other Power. After the electors had declared against the present League of Nations Mr. Daniels, as Secretary of the Navy, indicated another alternative. If we do not want the League of Nations (he said) we ought to nave a Conference purely on the subject of armaments. Every nation that has | joined the, League has promised this, and all they need now is to get us in. Unless there is some such agreement the United States should have a navy second to none. , At" first, the Harding Administration seemed to be more eager to press on with the big navy ideal than to consider the alternative suggested. The President's emphatic declaration that it'was impossible for America to disarm alone was so glaring an- evasion of the request that he should call a> Conference for a general reduction > of armaments by agreement as to suggest that 'he was not prepared to face it. But Mr. Harding's sincerity is fortunately beyond suspicion now. " America's withdrawal," says the Observer, "made a chaos of the peace." Her return, under President Harding's quid-! ance, to co-operation With the great European Powers holds out the hope that order may in course of time be. evolved in* Europe out of the chaos. Equally important and equally hopeful is the lead which on the same initiative she is now taking in asking the great naval Powers and the great Pacific Powers to confer wrEh 9, view to the reduction of naval armaments, and to the averting from this ocean of the ruin and misery, from which Europe has been suffering for the last seven years. There have been few more momentous events, if any, since the Armistice than the decisions of the United States Government to renew their representation on. the Supreme Council and to summon the Conference which is to deal with the problems of disarmament and the Pacific.

It would, of course, be unreasonable to search President Hnrding's message to the Jewess for auy

originality of idea or inspiration. But a commonplace well expressed, and at the right time, may often be of great value, and if it is expressed by one who has the power to trausform it from a copy-book text into a living reality the value may be incalculable.

It is idle (says Mr. Harding) to anticipate stability or assurance of social justice and security of peace while wasteful, unproductive outlays deprive Labour of its just reward, apd defeat reasonable expectations of progress. The enormous disbursements on and rivalries in armaments manifestly constitute tho greater part of the incumbrance on enterprise. Tho national propensity for this is not only without economic justification, but is a constant menace to the world's peace, rather than an assurance of its preservation.

The pessimists have been saying for some time that, in forcing this deadly competition in armaments, America has, whether consciously or unconsciously, been playing the part which Germany played before tho war. But for the present at any rate pessimism is silenced by the conti'ast between the reception by Tirpitz and Bethmann-Hollweg ,of Mr. Churchill's proposal for a " naval holiday " and the lead that President Harding and Mr. Hughes are now giving to the world.

•Japan, we may now be told, is really the Pojwer that has taken up the German running, and the utmost goodwill between the Englishspeaking races will not avail to secure her concurrence. From the standpoint of both the problems with which the Conference has to deal, the ambition of Japan obviously provides the crucial difficulty. The Anglo-Japanese Alliance presents to the Americans much the same difficulty that their feverish anxiety to build a navy as big as Britain's has presented to us. But it may reasonably be hoped that misconceptions on both points have already begun to clear, and that the process will be carried much further by> the exchanges "of opinion before the Conference which President Harding invites in his message. American suspicions of British designs may still need to be reckoned with, but the possibility that Japan may regard the Conference as an English-speaking combination against her surely represents a more serious danger. From this point of view, the AngloJfipanese Alliance may possibly become the nucleus of the whole settlement.