MR HARDING'S CONFERENCE

Northern Advocate, 16 July 1921, Page 4

MR HARDING'S CONFERENCE

President Harding's invitation to a number of Powers to attend a conference. on disarmament is apparently going to bear good fruit. France, Italy and China, have been included in addition to the three nations that have been so freely talked of in connection with' this subject, and all the parties conc(: rued are evidently ready for the proposed discussion. The only suggestion that any of the Powers may think of making some reservation in accepting Mr Harding's invitation is contained in the statement that Japan's reply does not make specific reference to the Pacific. Recognising that the question of limiting armaments has a close connection with Pacific and Fav Eastern problems, Mr Harding has urged that "the Powers specially interested should undertake in connection with this conference the consideration of all matters bearing on their solu-

Hon, with a view to reaching a common understanding in respect to principles and policies in the Far.East." There may be nq,"special significance in Japan's omission to mention the problems of the Pacific, for she has al-

ready fjiven many assurances of he? desire to limit armaments. .So far as

naval power is conccrned she is at prosent. the weakest of the three nations concerned with the Pacific, and -she may reasonably expect Britain and America to give her a lead. . The inclusion of Franco and Italy has broadened'.tire scope of the proposed conference, and that fact also affords a reason for Japan \s acceptance being couched in general terms. At any rate there is nothing to be gained by anticipating the possibility of any difficulty in. regard to the questions particularly relating to the Pacific; we may rather adopt an optimistic outlook and hope that the nations will come together and persuade each other to drop the mad race of armaments an :1 concentrate their best efforts 011 the perfection of .safeguards for the world peace. The task certainly will not be accomplished without some difficulty. We have only to go back a little Way into history to. learn that the best inteutioned nations* do not always rea- ' Use their ideals. In 1899 a great congress of the nations met at The Hague to devise means of assuring the peace of the world, but though all the nations appeared to be sincerely anxious to attain the great ideal innumerable difficulties cropped up. Military nation 9 that professed belief in the principle of limited armaments failed to agree, upon details. Naval Powers could not iind a standard upon which they could base a .comparison of navies ap the beginning of a scheme to restrict building. After the Russo-Japanese war, in 1904-5, there were great developments in naval construction, and the ideals sought at The Hague appeared 'to be farther away than ever. In the great war almost all the points upon which agreement had been reach od at The Hague were forgotten. The use of poisonous .gases was-tolerated, submarine warfare, bomb-dropping from aeroplanes and all the rent of -the practices that had been considered nibhorrent less than twenty years before were brought, into .opeml ion. Alos': peoples emerged from •tlie*gri»nt war • honwitlv believing that there rouM iiev:r.' he another world-conflict anil that President Wilson's League of Nations would become the guardian ot the world'.:* peace. "Vet even wiihin the. brief period since the war came to an end there have been fears of a conflict, involving t\V:O of the greato-n Powers. President -Wilson "s tine con-c:cp.-.'.en has not vet been realised. If his Kice.essor 'can succeed hi bringing •IV. n:itions together in an agreement f.o iiiait. annamenliS the first- step al anY rate will be ial-:<"-n toward- the ti 1 i,:m--it<;• gen'.