Hard Work Is Keynote Of Conference's Second Stage

This is the tenth in a series of articles which the Crimson is running on the Disarmament Conference at Washington, and the third of the weekly summaries of developments which will be printed.

No dramatic surprise or eloquent oratory has characterized the second stage of the Armament Conference. It has been a stage of hard work over an immense amount of details. It is in this stage that the statesmanship of the responsible men in this Conference is to be tested. The principles which they have accepted will serve the purpose for which this Conference assembled only as they are translated into action in specific cases.

Regarding the limitation of naval armaments, the delegates accepted the principle of the American proposal, which was to stop the competition in building navies. The essential element in that competition is the battle fleet. The only basis on which that competition can be stopped is to leave those battle fleets as they are. The United States therefore has proposed to scrap every battle ship and battle cruiser in the American, British, and Japanese navies, that was not actually in commission and useful for battle purposes. As estimated in displacement tonnage that leaves the ratio between the American, British, and Japanese navies as 10-10-6; that is for every ten tons that America has, Britain by the estimate of the American experts has in effective ships for battle purposes also ten; while Japan has six. If the naval programmes of the three countries are compared, including all capital ships, whether under construction on the ways, or launched but still uncompleted, or completed and ready for active service, or obsolete and of little or no use in modern naval warfare against modern ships, it is discovered that for America's ten tons Japan would have only five. By scrapping all ships under construction, Japan's relative tonnage is raised; but America decided to propose scrapping them all. In addition, by scrapping all American, British, and Japanese ships that can fairly be called obsolete or nearly so, and giving Japan the advantage of retaining ships of an age which America would discard, it is discovered, Japan's relative tonnage rises still further so that instead of being as originally 10-5 it becomes 10-6. But America proposes to scrap those too. These figures are rough, but they serve to show to what extent America is willing to sacrifice the certain advantage she would have if the competition were to continue. Now the experts have been examining these figures. That means an immense and necessarily slow labor. So far there has been no denial of their accuracy on the basis proposed. There has been raised, though not officially by any delegation, the question whether this ratio is sufficient for national needs. That of course changes the basis of the whole proposal. As soon as notional needs are considered, the question is removed from the region of fact to the region of opinion; and the very principle of the American proposal to stop the competition in naval armaments and to leave the ratio as it stands is vitiated. The race cannot stop and continue at the same time. It is not a question of this particular ship or that particular ship that is essential. That is a matter of detail; for one ship in actual service can be substituted for another of the same tonnage without destroying the principle. What is essential is that the competition stop so that the ratio remain what the experts find it actually now to be.

Conditions in China Considered

Regarding the Pacific and Far Eastern questions on the agenda of the Conference, the delegates accepted the four principles concerning China which I quoted last week, and which constitute what may be called the Eight-Power Agreement. The adoption of these principles, was, however, only a beginning. The delegates in committee at once set to work to apply those principles to the specific conditions in China which are the cause of international friction. These conditions they have agreed to consider in the order in which they are named in the agenda. First in order are the conditions affecting China's territorial and administrative integrity. Most of these conditions are of long standing. How involved they are no one who has read even so brief a history of China during the past century as can be found, for example, in the Encyclopedia Brittanica (a very good account) can be unaware. Opinions concerning conditions in what used to be called the Celestial Empire but is now certainly not a very celestial republic are, even among the well informed, extraordinarily diverse. One has only to read two such books as "The Fight for the Republic in China" by B. L. Putman Weale (pen name of Bortram Lenox-Simpson) and "China, Japan, and Korea" by J. O. P. Bland to learn how doctors disagree over this enfeebled and turbulent patient. No one can reasonably expect all her ills to be cured at this Conference; but there is good reason for expecting something to be done to alleviate them and even more to minimize the danger which they are to peace and justice among other countries.

Action Taken on Chinese Questions

Among these conditions affecting China's integrity are the arrangements under which certain of China's revenues are collected, the system or systems of foreign postal services conducted in Chinese territory, and what is known as exterritorial rights; and in all three subjects the delegates of the nine Powers assembled here have taken action.

They have referred the question of Chinese revenues to a subcommittee of which Senator Underwood of the American delegation is chairman. The present custom rates of five percent were determined years ago by treaty between China and the various Powers--China is therefore not free to determine for herself her own tariff rates. The situation is complicated by what is known as the likin, a system of interprovincial tariffs. It is all far from being simple, though the desire of the Chinese to secure the right to make their own tariff laws as other nations do, is simple enough and easy to understand. All the nations represented here are agreed that China's revenue system should be changed as soon as its complicated problems can be straightened out.

As to the foreign postoffices on Chinese soil the delegates here have taken more definite action. They have agreed to abolish, them, and have only temporarily postponed naming the date after which China will administer all postoffices within her borders. Thirty or forty years ago, as the Chinese themselves admit, the Chinese methods of communication were inadequate and unsatisfactory. Now, however, the Chinese postal system is so good that there is no reason for the existence of postoffices under foreign control. More than that, these foreign postoffices made smuggling easy. The only conditions which the Powers here make to the abolition of them is that the Chinese postal service be kept efficient, and that China continue to employ the foreign Co-Director General (who is appointed by China and serves in the interest of China and not of any foreign government). In the meantime the four Powers which maintain postal agencies in China will allow Chinese customs authorities under conditions to examine postal matter going through these agencies in order to prevent smuggling.

On extraterritorial rights the delegates took the same first steps which led to the abolition of such rights in Japan. By these rights foreigners are privileged to appear in trials before courts conducted by men of their own country and according to their own country's laws. Such rights were justifiable when first established, for Chinese justice was then not conducted according to methods which western nations regarded as wholly civilized. It was permissible in Chinese courts, for example, to extort testimony by torture. Now the Powers here assembled have agreed that foreign courts will be withdrawn as soon as an international commission can determine that Chinese courts are adequate.

So these committees are taking up these specific questions one by one and reaching agreements not merely on principles but on courses of action.

At Work on New Methods of Warfare

There are also committees at work on new methods and instruments of warfare, such as poison gas and aircraft.

While these committees have been at work there has been a dearth of official news and a consequent oversupply of rumor. In one case the rumor caused such ill feeling in Italy toward the French that it started riots and bloodshed. In this case the Conference took notice of the rumor and officially and emphatically denied it. For the most part, however, the information that has gone out from here through the press has been trustworthy, and the discussion in the press has been helpful to the progress of the Conference. By means of the press this has become not merely a Conference of delegates but in fact a council of nations. On the one hand the public knows everything about the Conference that is of the slightest public interest; and on the other hand the delegates are kept informed of the views and wishes of the peoples for whom they are trustees