WASHINGTON.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18513, 25 March 1922, Page 6

WASHINGTON.

By Captain E. O. Mouslbt, Secretary for New Zealand at the Washington Conference. On my return to New Zealand, after eleven years of study, travel, and service abroad, I have been requested to siy aomething of the Washington Conference and of my general impressions. .As my duties at Washington included those , of Publicity Officer, I have been accorded permission to do so. The data have already been given to the press. ' While ratification of the various treaties is pending, a non-controversial point of view will perhaps be excused.—E. 0. M. lAMERICA’S INVITATION. As, the hot English summer drew to its close and, after three years of peace, we, approached Armistice Day once again people asked: .How much will happen at Washington? ' Washington stood for a great Hope. Three years of peace, what had they brought u»J • We had just negotiated the greatest strike in our history, after it had cost half our pre-war national debt. In Europe and elsewhere trade routes were deserted, markets silent, and the ..wheels of industry at- A - standstill. In some parts, starving women were carrying their dead children toL enlist pity for the others. Inside the Empire and out, clouds of unrest, so far from.dispersing, were gathering afresh over old and new storm centres. In many far places the burden of this aftermath was being supported bv Great Britain, to a great degree, alone. The general situation was extraordinary and contradictory. America, with most of tbe-available gold and topmost exchange, had not succeeded in her bid for tho mercantile shipping of the world, had lost most of her 'trade, and against our two millions had five millions unemployed. Germany had no unemployed. France, who had inflated and temporised to save her sorrowing people from crushing taxation, looked to Germany to pay. but the year drew to its close without the wit of man having devised means of making Germany pay — for the War. France, therefore, continued to think strategically as regards Silesia, Poland, and the Ruhr. At Home, industrial enterprise and private property, already crippled with heavy taxa-tion;-could yield no more. Nevertheless, a , heavy deficit on our Budget appeared inevitable. While pending the discovery of meajis of recovering from Germany part price of our sacrifice, we were faced with the problem of “carrying on.” The gigantic 1916 naval programme of the United States was proceeding apace, and we were confronted with the alternative of being eclipsed on the sea in 1924 by the navy of the United States, or of entering the race pf competition in naval armament with Power far more able to afford it than we were. America is rich, but her labour pro Uem» and high wages indicate troubles still ahead. •Notwithstanding this gloomy outlook, certain progress is to be recorded, for certain truths had begun to appear: (1) That the results of war cannot be effaced by reparations. however much justice may demand it; (2) that the solution of industrial and social trouble cannot he found by any shoes tactics, whether by striking or forcing (ho invention of a formula; and (3) thjl world construction requires world co operation. Then suddenly there came President Harding’s invitation to limit armament. It offered a possibility of a wholesale reduc tion of expenditure, and, to a degree, the elimination of a decided cause of war. In Drinkwater’s great play, which of recent years has beerf running in London, Abraham Lincoln replies to -.the widow mat bereft of her son: “It’s no use trying to atop war unless you remove the causes of war.” One cause of war is that a nation fearing competition strikes while she is the more ready. we arrived at Washington. , f n. ARMISTICE DAY. The Conference was timed to start on (Armistice. Day with the burial of the Unknown Soldier—a symbol of tho Great War that focussed on the Conference the world’s attention. The Great War was the first Volkskricg, or war' of peoples, and this was the People’s Conference. The enthusiasm of public opinion in America as each decision was reached evidences this. Samuel Gompers, the Labour leader of America, talked to us in the train on the way down from New York. The following day he was to address a great crown in Madison square, and his speech was to be megaphoned all over America. This was nis message; “For the failure of the Washington Conference the American Federation of Labour will accept neither reason nor excuse.” There is a Congressional election in the autumn. In Sir John Salmond’s absence, it fell to my lot to decide “on an inscription tor (New Zealand’s wreath —a very beautiful one of giant mauve and white chrysanthemums, which had come from London, together with the wreaths from the King and others. It read as follows: “PBOif THE ■DOMINION' OP NEW ZEALAND. ‘•UNNAMED NET NOT UNKNOWN! “They brought us for our dearth Holiness lacked so long, and Love, and Pain." The IJnknown Warrior, while unidentified, stands to each of us for his own loss. Tho other lines will be recognised as from Rupert Brookes’s immortal “Sonnet to the Dead.” Sir John Salmond, whose train had been delated by a collision, arrived 20 minutes before the ceremony. We drove straight to the Capitol, and, after the representative of Australia, he placed the wreath for New Zealand on the Unknown Warrior. Theri through the streets of Washington—the most beautifm thing I saw in America—the procession, in which the Delegations figured prominently, wended its way to Arlington, where in front of the amphitheatre, on the heights overlooking _ the city. President Harding pronounced in eloquent words the message of the Great Dead. The Conference started. in. OPENING OF CONFERENCE. The conference was opened on the morning of the 12th by President Harding in the Continental Hall. In his first speech, Mr Hughes, Secretary of State for the United States, with an abruptness and frankness and unexpectedness that surprised the whole assembly, laid down a concrete and definite proposal which drew a line across the great navies of the world. It had been kept very secret. Two and ahalf months afterwards an agreement was reached, not very different from tho one proposed. It was a definite pronouncement, involving the scrapping of 66 capital ships oi the three Powers—United States, British Empire, and Japan—costing £554,400,000. with an annual upkeep expenditure of £26,400.000. This proposal, so far from having a tcchnica l significance only, was seen to reach to the heart of politics, trade, economics, general disarmament, and other considerations, for diplomacy and foreign policy must bear a direct relationship to a nation’s armed forces. While certain difficulties were involved in the Naval Proposal itself, the whole problem of naval reduction:' was - bound up in the solution of certain;, political problems in the Pacific and : tbe Far East, without which wholesale naval reduction could not be entertained. The proposition before us was the largest possible limitation of naval armament consistent with national security. With the collapse of Russia and the disappearance of Germany from the Pacific, the reasons tor the Anglo-Japanese Alliance hod, according to American opinion on all sitfes, quite disappeared. There was also question of fortifications in the Pacific, and difficulty over the mandates, arising from tne fact that America had not ratified the Treaty of Versailles under which the mandatory system was created. There was the Shantung situation in China, which similarly arose from the Treaty of Versailles. A« the Conference was an American invitation, so the Naval Proposal was purely American, and the only difficulties, to their own showing, were these. They were all cleared away. IV. QUADRUPLE PACIFIC TREATY. This simply an agreement between ‘he United "States, Great Britain, Japan, and France to confer together over any dispute concerning tuem arising in the Pacific after the usual diplomatic resources have failed. It in no wise interferes with domestic jurisdiction. which is specially excepted, and with the ratification the Anglo-Japanese Alliance is ipso facto annulled. Tn a Supplementary Agreement to the Pacific Treaty, signed on the same day, it is declared that the Treaty shall ■not be taken as a recognition of the mandates by the united States, and shall not preclude any agreement between the United States and the_ Mandatory Powers os regorns mandated Let us see the meaning of this. MANDATES. The Covenant oi the League and the (Treaty of Versailles creates three classes ■ of mandate*, “A,” "B,” and “C.*” Former German nosseseions in the Pacific Ocean come Under the first doss-— territories which, “ow-

injr to fheir spar*eness oT population or of their small size . . . or of their geographical contiguity to the territories of the mandatory, can best be administered under laws_ot the mandatory.” Class "B” mandates (such as Central Africa) contain a provision “securing equal opportuntiee for trade and commerce of other members of the League.” North oi the Equator, Japan became mandatory for the “C " mandate of a string of islands stretching two thousand miles, the Carbime. Marshall, and Marianna Groups, including the Island of Yap. South of the Equator, New Zealand received the mandate of German Samoa, Australia the mandate of New guinea, while the rich phosphate island of Nauru was placed under the joint administration of Australia and New Zealand. A"u these are auministered under the low 01 the mandatory as a portion of its territory—i.e., in the case of Samoa, the territory of New Zealand. At Paris, Mr Wilson had put forward a demand for American cable rights at Yap. A further difficulty arose in that the United States had not ratified the Treaty of Versailles, but contended that, although not a party to the treaty, as one of the Allied and associated Powers, she was entitled to certain rights in the Pacific. At Washington an agreement was reached between Japan and the United States, by which the mandate for Yap remains under Japan. The United States is accorded equal cable rights. As regards the other mandates, the supplementary agreement to the Pacific Treaty does not mean that the United States will not recognise the mandates, which she has signified she null do if certain requests of hers are granted. The Pacific Quadruple Treaty was signed on December 13. As well as relating both Japan and the United Stales to the new centre of political gravity ascertained in the Pacific, it takes cognisance of the difficulty occasioned through the United States dropping out of the picture of Versailles. A reservation at present before the Senate is to the effect that any agreements reached on these outstanding matters—which are usually arranged by exchange of Notes between the Powers—must come before the Senate for approval also. FORTIFICATIONS. A further advance in Pacific questions was made in the famous Article XIX of the Naval Treaty, relating to fortifications. As Senator Lodge said last week, without, settlement of the Pacific problems the Naval Proposal could not have been entertained. A Power does not want to part with a considerable percentage of her naval strength if hostile fortifications are to be proceeded with at her door. The Naval Treaty, which had been ready weeks before, was finally held up until the agreement as embodied in Article XIX was reached. By it the British Empire, the United States, and Japan agree to maintain in certain islands in the Pacific the status quo at the date of signature of the present treaty. As regards other islands, absolute liberty is retained. Consideration of these Pacific problems, as well as of those in the Far East, proceeded concurrently with consideration of file Naval Treaty, upon which, it will be observed, an agreement was reached last of all.