WORK AT WASHINGTON.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 17985, 10 January 1922, Page 5

WORK AT WASHINGTON.

ASSESSMENT IN AMERICA.

DOMESTIC POLITICAL ISSUE.

TEST OF ADMINISTRATION.

Br Telegraph-Press Association-Copyright. (Received 6.30 p.m.) United Service. WASHINGTON, Jan. 7. The special representative of the United Service at the Washington Conference says that it is beginning to be realised how closely the success of the conference as a whole is bound up with that of Mr. Harding's administration. The public imagination, despite the failure to reduce land armaments, is stirred by the realisation that the greatest three naval Powers are sacrificing among themselves more than 2,000,000 tons of capital ships, not to speak of other craft. A decisive period is approaching at which an assessment of the achievemente of the conference will afford data to enable Americans to decide whether Mr. Harding's wisdom in initiating thin great movement has been justified. The Administration's domestio policy, owing largely to the chaotic conditions inherited from the war, has been regarded in many quarters as only a qualified success. For this- reason hopes are based, not only on the ambitious programme prepared for the present session of Congress, but also on the Administration's foreign policy as exemplified at the Washington Conference, and as affected by the issues to be brought , to bear at the Cannes Conference. It is considered that much has been accomplished. There is a real barrier against war between any of the four great Powers- The conference habit has been established, the principle of limiting armaments accepted, the unpopular AngloJapanese Alliance superseded, and the way paved for an agreement on Far Eastern questions. In any event the conference has gone far to promote that closer understanding between the two branches of the English-speaking race, which is an inestimably valuable guarantee for the peace of the world.