Evening Star Newspaper, September 16, 1928, Page 37

EDITORTAE SECTION ~ The Sundy Star, WASHINGTON, D. C, SUNDAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 16, 1928, NEW NOTE IS IN U. S. FOREIGN AFFAIRS K('llogg Anti-War Pact Declared to Mark Death of Partisan Spirit in Amer- ican Foreign Relations. BY FREDERIC WILLIAM WILE. MID the hurly-burly of the presi- A has not measured at full value the underlying significance of Secretary Kellogg's plea for national treaty to outlaw war. What the Secretary of State has actually done is to project a program new in latter- ing the conduct of foreign affairs out of the field of party controversy and making it entirely non-partisan and | The Kellogg plan, in short, calls for a foreign policy which shall be neither Republican nor Democratic policy, but The State Department chief is advocat- Ing a system which long has been ac- cepted by most foreign governments as with rare exceptions, the Tu.. is “Party controversy ends at the frontier | and the seaboar ‘The rule is based foreign policy.” On his recent return from Europe, | Mr. Kellogg said: “I do not think that a party issue, either in the present| presidential campaign or in the Senate. | I cannot conceive that it will be. The | to all civilizations. It is an interna- | tional matter of world-wide importance. | And it is not the prerogative of any one | & country Hoover in Conformance. Although the Secretary of State gave very moment Herbert Hoover was ac- claiming the anti-war treaty as “a Republican accomplishment,” along ference and the Dawes Plan, it is safe to assert that Mr. Hoover's attitude toward “continuity of foreign policy” is Mr. Kellogg. On that famous occasion, 10 years ago this Fall, when Woodrow ‘Wilson sought the election of a Con- peace policies, Food Administrator Hoover joined in the appeal. Hoover did not ask for a Democratic Congress. | Congress which would hold up the hands of the President of the United States in the midst of the country’s Hoover believed to be so transcendent that politics should be adjourned until it was past. ° policy on all major occasions after the Civil War was marked by non-political “*‘continuity” until the League of Na- trine, for instance, has never been a partisan foot ball. Both parties have consistently supported it. When Grover | lan message to Great Britain in 1895, Republicans stood solidly behind the | Democratic President, McKinley took | 1898, with little or no partisan opposi- | tion to that Republican administration’s | procedure, though “imperialism” under political issue. ‘Throughout the United States’ trou- bles with Mexico, following the fall of ‘was' maintained during the administra- tions of Presidents Taft, Wilson, Hard- ing and Coolidge. As soon as the Soviet dential campaign, the country non-partisan consideration of the inter- day American practice—namely, of tak- | non-political. merely and wholly American policy traditional and fundamental. Abr: on what is known as “continuity of | the renunciation of war should be made | promotion of peace is an ideal common | country, nor of any one group within | utterance to this view almost at the with the Washington armament con- in line with the one just enunciated by gress which would support his war and H. favored merely the election of a| gravest international crisis—a crisis Broadly speaking, American forelgn tions crisis in 1919. The Monroe Doc- Cleveland sent his czlebrated Venezue- the country into war with Spain in | Bryan's leadership later became & Porfirio Diaz, “continuity of policy” government seized power in Russia, a PROJECTED Democratic administration adopted the policy of non-recognition and it has | been maintained by two succeeding Re- publican Presidents and their Secre- taries of State. Partisanship Recent. It was the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 that ushered in the present era of | political consideration of foreign affairs |in America. The United States Sen- ate’s hostility to President Wilson's [peace policies in general, and the League of Nations in particular, set alight a fire of partisan treatment |of our international relations, which flares up periodically nowadays. Exist- ing Democratic opposition to the Cool- idge administration’s Latin American policy Is a product of the system then inaugurated. Mr. Kellogg went through the league fight as a member of the Senate foreign relations committee. He was a “mild reservationist,” i. e., one of the minority Republican group which favored American entry into the League on terms which Woodrow Wilson, his heart stubbornly set on the covenant without amendment, refused to accept. Perhaps the present Secretary of State, mindful of the resultant effect upon American prestige abroad, would like to inaugurate a system of American diplomacy which would end once for all the policy of “playing politics” with for- eign affairs. There is hardly an important foreign | country which does not habitually pur- sue a straight line in international af- fairs, regardless of which political party may be in office. Great Britain is the best case in point. Conserva- tive and Liberal governments, and now and then even a_ Labor government, come and go, but Downing Street goes on forever—goes on playing John Bull's restless game of conserving and ag- grandizing British world power. Not even the personnel of the London for- eign office, with its famous staff of “permanent officials,” is ever changed. The French, though they swap prime | ministers and foreign secretaries fifty | times a decade, adhere inviolably to | their bedrock foreign policy of making themselves secure on France's eastern frontier (the Rhine) through a system of defensive continental alliances and developing the French colonial empire in Africa. French domestic politics, which is far more bitter than our own, is never permitted to interfere with the major motives of French foreign policy. Soviet Russia keeps the same covetous eye peeled on Mongolia, Manchuria and Northern China as czarist Russia al- ways had, and only pursues different tactics in Far Eastern policy. Japan, despite the fluctuations of her party politics, never forsakes her overshadow- | ing objective—the “consolidation” of | Nippon's position on the continent of / Asfa. Fascist Italy, under Mussolini, safeguards the same Itallan policy in the Adriatic, the Trentino and the Tyrol that the Italy of Salandra, Gio- | littl and Orlando pursued. Secretary Kellogg, with such varia- tions as special conditions in the United States might necessitate from time to time, favors the same general American attitude of mind toward foreign affairs that prevails abroad. He holds peace to be the alpha and omega of our world policy. In its attainment he con- siders that Republicans and Democrats, much as they may bicker on home af- fairs, should close the ranks when American interests reach the Atlantic and the Pacific coasts, or the Mexican and Canadian borders, and become for- eign affairs, (Copyright. 1928 South Sea’s Jungles Swallow “Broadway eT) Modernizing the south sea islands to the extent of endowing them with an imitation Broadway would be an over- ambitious task. Still it was attempted some time ago—but, the dream re- mains in the realm of fancy. It was a native chief who was in- spired to effect such a project when, visiting in Japan, he became highly interested in the brightly lighted main shopping street of Tokio, the Ginza. Returning to his home he announced that he was going to duplicate the -Broadway of the East on his island. He caused a grand thoroughfare 650 feet long and about 10 feet wide to be constructed near the village. Instexd ~of electric lights, gas lights were in- stalled and they sputtered with all the | brilliance their imported tanks could master. The rest ofthe island luol»:i little interest in the innovation and | few people passed that way. Other attractions of the Ginza could | not be supplied—the chief thought that the lighting was the only requirement The island boulevard gradually fell into disuse, the lights went out for lack ol fuel and the eternal jungle finally en- gulfed the tropical Broadway. So when more recently a party of south sea islanders touring Tokio beheld the main street they realized the enormity, if not the monstrosity, of their chief's effort and were the bet- ter qualified to express appreciation of | ‘what he had tried to do. State Held Greates! Landowner in France The greatest landowner in France is the French state. It possesses palaces, castles, mansions. buildings of all kinds, and forests—besides roads, ports, rail- | ways. A record of all its properties, just drawn up, reveals a total value of $3.- 800.000,000. The castle and park of Versailles are estimated at $240,000.000 Fontainebleau is much cheaper, $4.280,- 00. and its wonderful forest is worth only $2.000,000. Also, the lovely castle of Azay-le-Rideau, in Touraine, is en- tered in the inventory for the ridiculous sum of $20,000. To make up for that, the Louvre, in Paris, with its immense palace and the Tuileries Garden, comes up to the sum of $200,000.000. But the French administration refused to assign any monelary value to certain monuments, such as Notre Dame de Paris and the Arc < Triomphe., which svmbolize a g'=s0us past, or to the war cemeteries in foreign countri under the French flag, where lie the children of France who sacrificed their lives for ‘justice and liberty. Warns Against Study of Law. No fewer than 12,300 students are studying law in Prussia today as com- pared with only 6,000, or less than half in 1913. The number of aspirants for the position of judges or public prose- cutors is estimated at 5,000, and there 1s little likelihood that all of them will find employment. Many, therefore, are becoming bar- risters, with the result that this profes~ sion, too, is rapidly becoming over- erowded. Under these circumstances a warning has been issued by the authori- ties against studying law, says the Christian Science Monitor, American Center In Sweden Planned | . A plan for the erection of an Amer- | ican house in Stockholm is occupying various Swedish-American organizations here. The suggestion first came from the United States, but was eagerly taken up over here and now seems to be sure of realization. Americans visit Sweden in growing numbers every year and it has been found desirable to make arrangements for providing information and sugges- tions for study and travel to those, par- ticularly of Swedish descent, who want to get into closer touch with the life and culture of Sweden. The origital plan was for a kind of “travelers’ home” in the country, pref- erably in an old manor house in the central provinces. It is now conceded, | however, that the American house, if it | is going to be the center of Swedish- | American relations that is hoped of it, will have to be located in Stockholm. ‘The intere: in the undertaking shown especially by Swedish-Americans has been promising and it is expected that the necessary funds will be readily forthcoming. . Excavators on Trail Of Circus Maximus A 10-year archeological excavation project, which scholars belie will throw important light on early Roman history and perhaps uncover great treasures of antiquity, was begun in Rome April 21, traditional birthday of this immemorial city. The project concerns the site of the | Cireus Maximus, which was regarded | as the foremost structure of the ancient | world. Here were held those sump- | tuous games and spectacles with which emperors amused the populace and themselves, The structure is said to have been 2,000 feet long and 600 feet | wide and to have been capable of hold- | ing no_less than 250,000 people—per- haps 350.000. After years of legal processes the owners of the gas works, shops and shacks which formerly oc- cupied the site of the circus have been dispossessed and excavations are being | made under the leadership of Italy's greatest archeologists, such as Senator Corrado Ricci and Director General of Antiquities Antonio Munoz. - . Japan May Have Own “Teapot Dome™ ‘The Minseito, chief opposition party to the Seiyukai government in Japan, believes jt has uncovered a govern- mental scandal which will rival the Teapot Dome case in the United States. An investigation commission | of the party has been at work for | some time upon the .alleged graft and | has now come out with the charge | that the Seiyukai has been undertak- |ing shadowy transactions with state | forest preserves. The charges are to ! be aired in court soon. The commission | recently gave out a statement that it | had proof the Seiyukai had sought to transfer state forest preserves either to local governments for party gain or private individuals through nominally semi-official agencies. The commission BY DONALD DOUGLAS. O to Germany and try to talk to any German about another war or the need of another war and see how far you get. They have just one answer: “Der Krieg ist aus!” That doesn’t so much mean that the war is over as that the war is out. The war is an old and forgotten memory. The war is something you read about in books as you read about the Thirty Years' War or some other war equally archaic. The war is passe. You no more talk about the war or dream of a new war any more than you sing the hit from last year's musical comedy. Of course, there is the problem of the Rhine Valley, but that, too, is a present problem, to be settled on its own merits and the-terms of the treaty. It has nothing to do with planned revenge in the future. Even the foreign colonies lost in the war seem no occasion for bitterness, for the Germans plan to ask for no resti- tution of districts lost in the political divisions following the treaty. And what the Germans plan for the future must be born in the future. So far as one can learn, they plan nothing except new commerce and new finance and new uses of machinery and all modern ways for making their land healthy and wealthy and wise. If you talk about the past war or the chance for a new war, they find you a terrible bore and go on drinking beer and listening to Strauss waltzes or singing the latest musical comedy. To work hard and play hard and be let alone so that they can bring about peace and prosperity is their most ex- pressed desire. AVIATION has no difficulty now tunity in an industry that is with flying is irom the boy or young have the necessary qualification or the the most exacting branches of the pro- ence in the air, A transport pilot must they are attracted by the future of avia- adventure. But its practical business and in which, given the proper qualifi- think, and this should be one of those paying passengers were carried by all where from a few minutes to many reported an investment totaling $7,05 expenses of $2.115,340. How much was a contrast to six years ago, when I passengers at $10 a hop. That was esting time and did a lot to keep avia- of $1838462. There were 462 persons | transport companies made money and cited a half dozen or more deals into which 1t is proposed that the ministry of justice order a full investigation. BY COL. CHARLES A. LINDBERGH. in gaining recruits. Young men are turning to it all over the country as a new oppor- developing with amazing rapidity. One of the most common inquiries addressed to any one’ who has anything to do man who asks, “How can I get into aviation?” The difficulty is that few of them time to acquire the skill essential either in an engineer or a pilot in commercial flying. Aircraft engineering is one of fession, and no pilot is acceptable to a commercial transport company until he has several hundred hours of experi- have at least 200 hours of solo flying before he can get his license. ‘There is little wonder, however, that tion, leaving aside the natural desire of youth to take to the air. It is one of the few remaining fields of constant side is just as fascinating to the man looking for a new field of endeavor which has not vet been standardized cations, there is great opportunity. Growth as Business. Figures are sometimes interesting, I times. There are few people who real- ize the extent to which aviation has grown as a business. More than 600,000 sorts of operators in 1926, and in 1927 the number was greatly increased. Pas- sengers flew on trips that ranged any- hours. There were 21 air transport com- panies operating in 1927, 19 of which 650, Seventcen of these companies re ported a total revenue from mail, pas sengers and express of $2,201,150," with taken in by the operators on short fiights can only be imagined, but it must have been a huge sum. That is quite started to fly, and the only commercial | flying that amounted to anything was | done by the barnstormers who took up | where I got my first flying experience. | And while the barnstormers did not make much money they had an inter-; tion alive. 1 ‘Twenty air transport companics in 1927 used 130 planes, having a value employed on these routes, of which 107 were pilots. This vear these figures will increase tremendously. Eight of the operated at a cost of 54.7 cents a mile. There are now 22 air mail routes and 11 non-mail routes in operation. There | |they will never like the French. ‘They do not like the French ;‘nd or that matter, the French will never like the Germans. It is a mutual dislike more founded in national and racial traits than in the recollection of past indignities or past victories; and except in the case of embittered monarchists and politically impotent peasants mut- tering plans for revenge as they drink their beer, it has no political meanin! They do like and respect the English, and they adore Americans. When they fancy you an Englishman (probably on account of old clothes bought and not paid for two years ago in Sayville row) they want you to tell them all about the very latest thing in clothes. ‘When they discover you an American making yourrelf a nuisance by trying to find out something of their inten- tions about a new war, they offer you a huge beer, and while you drink they get all excited about Tom Mix and Charlie Chaplin and the latest plays on Broadway and American architec- ture and new novels and especially sport and jazz, They would rather have come in sec- ond in the Olympic games than win an- other war. They'll get all wrought up about beating the Australians in ten- nis (as they did), but try and get them thrilled about a new gigantic army and they give you one disgusted look and go on singing, “Trink, trink, Bruderlein, trink, so ist das Leben ein Scherz.” (“Drink good beer, little brother, and find life & jest; a healthy, happy jest.”) They do not drink and sing to forget their sorrow. They do not treat you with the most charming hospitality to send you home with false stories about their beneficent intentions, while in se- cret they build armies and machinery for war. These things they do from sheer love of life and relaxation from hard toil, and chiefly from their great love of music. If you suspect them of hornswoggling you with a deceptive and fraudulent parade of pious virtue all you have to do is to hide in a corner and listen to their talk and keep your ears wide open. When the band plays “Deutschland, Deutschland, uber Alles,” they do not rise and yell and get red in the face with the hope of a new world conquest. They do not seem especially interested. But let the band play a Strauss waltz and they go round in cir- cles in their chairs. Let the band play a song of the Rhine wines and the Rhine madchen and they roar with approbation. Steel your heart against their infectious gayety and distrust their every word and you come to the same conclusion: The war is out, down and out. People Have Power. Ah, you may exclaim, all this doesn't prove & thing. These are the people, and, except in moments of national ex- citement, - the burghers have never wanted war. The people may not want war, but over and over in history the people have been nurtured for war by an insidious propaganda. The people do not want war, but the people have no real voice in the sccret government and no power in shaping national policies. To that argument there are two certain answers; in Germany now the pedple have political power; and in the early years of this century the peo- ple did give every impression of desiring a war. Look at the last elections and the tri- umph of the Social Democrats. Look at the conduct of that splendid old man, Von Hindenburg, the leader in the war STUDENTS RECEIVING INSTRUCTION IN PRACTICAL AERONAUTICS. are also 5 mail routes under contract but not operating, and 3 additional routes for which mail bids have been asked. There are 1433 licensed planes in the country and 1296 identified planes. ‘There are 2,423 licensed pilots and 2,751 licensed mechanics. In 1927 there were 2,111 planes manufactured, and these figures will be doubled this year. The airplane manufacturers have increased from 90 last year to 125 this year. The tofal value of airplanes in this country has increased from $3,466,- 452 in 1019 to $12,024.085 in 1927. ‘That shows &n industry rapidly grow- (4 ing and explains why it is attracting so many men. Most of them, however, have a misconception of what is needed to succeed in aviation, either as an en- gineer, a mechanic or a pilot. It is an industry in which' nothing can be taken for granted, because of the hazards in- volved, and it demands the highest ability. It is unfortunate that the attractions of aviation should have been used by unscrupulous persons to obtain money by offering quick and easy courses that it 15 claimed lead to good positions as pilots or engineers. There are many of ar Surely “Out” in Germany Hard Work, Music and Play, Not Military Conflict, Is Chief Desire of People Now. and now the most ardent advocate of the republic and the most ardent advo- cate of peace. Look at the trouble Von Huenefeld got himself into by paying a visit to the Kaiser. He had to make open reparation to the workingmen and the Social Democrats. Read even the most violent newspapers. They do want what they call political justice on the Rhine, but you cannot find anything about a new war. Even in their private unpublished talk you'll find nothing doing. With every appearance of sin- cerity they tell you over and over again: “By winning the war the Americans broke up the Prussian monarchy, de- stroyed the soldier education of the men we had to spend all our time saluting, gave us a chance to discover the rotten- ness of military glory, gave us freedom to do what at heart we always wanted to do—listen to good music, work very hl;rd. play in the evening and be our- selves. Gain Knowledge of Souls. “At one time we were dazzled with a glitter of bayonets that took light from the imperial sun. We never saw the blood on the bayonets, or knew that the bayonets pierced our own hearts as much as they pierced the hearts of the enemy. We were beaten and humili- ated and so came into knowledge of our souls. Only the conquered can learn from a war. We have learned; and at this distance of time we know just how much we have learned. “Better still, we have power, political power over our own desires. Right now we have little voice in the councils of the world. We have to take whatever we are given; but we do not eat our bread with tears or dream of revenge (Continued on Fourth Page.) Aviation as Future Career Famous Flyer Tells How One May Get Into Air—Vast Development of the Business. these schools all over the country, and they have done a great deal of harm. So little is known about aviation that the man or boy who wants to fly or build girplanes does not know where to start and is easily flimflammed out of his money. Cost of Instruction. Many of these schools offer to teach one to fly in 10 hours at a cost of around $100. Nobody can learn to be a pilot in 10 hours of flying, and the good schools that give instruction enough to obtain a license charge much more than $100. It should cost at least $500 to obtain the flying instructions that will enable & man to get his license, and then he is only started. He must keep on flying until he has piled up an ex- perience which will permit an operator to intrust to him a piece of machinery worth thousands of dollars which can be wrecked in a fraction of a second. The average transport operator re- quires his pilots to have at least 500 hours of flying experience, and the ex- perienced transport pilots have much more than that. That is the reason most of the recruits to commercial transport flyihg come from the Army or Navy, where they get a rigid train- ing extending over several hundred hours before they are graduated from the military flying school. Even if a young man has money enough to get his license, he must either be able 10 hire an airplane, which is expensive, to continue his flying or buy one of his own. Many men have entered aviation by working as me- chanics, gaining valuable technical knowledge and finally learning to fly through the friendship of a pilot who will teach them for nothing. Great Opportunities in Flying. It must not be thought that it is so difficult to enter aviation that it is hardly worth while to try. There are g:eat opportunities in flying. The new aeronautical schools in the universities offer the best opportunity to obtain the lechnical knowledge now necessary to move upward in aviation. These schools are well organized and equipped to teach a man the science of aeronautics, and the manufacturing companies are looking to the technical schools for the men who must be found to work out the intricate problems of aircraft design and manufacture. The time is coming also when the flying schools will have to increase their equipment and extend instruction of their pupils so that they will not only learn the elements of flying, but how to fly cross-country, fly “blind” by in- struments and learn to deal with the emergencies which arise on such flights, It will cost the pupil more, but it will be worth its weight in gold to him many times. And also it is now, with a more closely organized industry, an industry with very high requirements. quite re- moved from the haphazard flying of a few years ago, absolutely essential in success. » in International S ished by An BY FRANK H. SIMONDS. ESPITE the fact that many weeks have now passed since the first announcement was made of the Anglo-French naval agreement, it continues to dominate all international discus- sions. Not even the dramatic and im- pressive ceremonles which attended the signing of the Kellogg pact have served to lessen the interest or diminish the importance of what, in itself, was the simplest and most informal of under- standings. ‘This enduring naval agreement is a significant evi- dence of the sensitive state which exists in every European capital and of the survival of the suspiclons which were not only born of the World War, but antedated it and might well be ac- cepted as the normal condition in Europe. But some of the cotemporary reactions, to use the American word which arouses most British protest, are intensely interesting, as they disclose the operation of the national minds in varfous countries. Makes Briand Unpopular. At Geneva, for example, it 1s patert that the double effect of the Kellogy treaty and the Anglo-French agreement has been to minimize the importance of the annual assembly and stir up un- i expected unpopularity for Briand, long the special hero of the Geneva audi- ences. Always at the League meetines there is suspicion, rarely unjustified, on the part of the small nations. They are always expecting that the great powers will attempt to “put something over on them.” And the naval agrecment is precisely the sort of bargain betwee: great powers which disturbs the small. At present the great issue at Geneva is disarmament. Despite many solemn meetings, the whole project lags. Th» Coolidge conference of last year, which resulted in a deadlock between the British and ourselves, was a patent dis- couragement of all hopes of early lim- itation of naval or land armaments. Now the Anglo-French agreemer’ acts as a further obstacle, because not only does it recognize the principle that France and Britain shall be free to build as many small submarines and cruisers as each respectively desires, but it registers British acquiescence in the French contention that countries which employ conscript armies shall be permitted to count their soldiers only by the troops actually under arms. This means that in the case of France, Poland, Italy—in fact, all the nations which train all their youth, while behind their active army they have millions of trained reserves—the reserves will not count. But this in turn leaves all the countries which are { forbidden to train their youth — Ger- many, Austria, Hungary and Bulgaria, the defeated of the war—at a hopeless disadvantage in the face of their neighbors. And it abolishes even a re- mote hope of procuring the abandon- ment of the whole conscript system. Britain Swings Balance. As long as Great Britain stood with Germany and the United States in sup- port of the principle that reserves and active forces should be counted —artl this principle naturally had the back- ing of the smaller states, which were the neutrals of the war—some real lim- itation of land forces seemed at least conceivable. But now that the British have quit and accepted the fact that the French mean to stand by their ideas and therefore that further discus- sion is useless, prospects of League con- ferences and commissions to reduce navies and armies are manifestly un- promising. As for the Germans; the blow for them is heavy, for they have all along relied on British and American influ- ence to produce some restriction of French, Polish and Czechoslovak armies. They have claimed, not without reason, that their own disarmament, enforced by the peace treaties, was pro- claimed a preliminary step to general limitation. But now, 10 years after the peace treaties were framed, it becomes wellnigh certain that they will be left disarmed, while their neighbors retain their great armies and will be able to throw into any conflict not only their standing armies, which greatly out- number the Germans completely, but reserves which number millions. Berlin has always hoped that Anglo- Saxon pressure would more or less limit French and little entente armies. But now that Britain has made a general agreement with France, all hope of lim- itation in armaments, like all promise of early evacuation of the Rhineland, disappears, and as a consequence Ger- man statesmen are once more playing with the idea of the Russian orienta- tion. Relations between Berlin and Moscow have become notably more cor- dial. The game is obvious and it brought German disaster at Genoa six years ago, but to the German mind it is the only card left to play. See United States as Target. Despite all the denials and affirma- tions which come from London and Paris, Berlin, like Rome, sees the naval agreement not as a simple affair cov- ering cruisers and submarines, with an included concession in the matter of the French army, but as the revival of the old Anglo-French entente, which wns the starting point for the real or alleged “encirclement of Germany” that mind in the pre-war years. agreement as aimed primarily at the United States. For both capitals it is no more than the repetition of the strategy which was adopted in London whenythe Kaiser set out to create a greal r fleet, and thus to challenge British sea rupremacy. They are aware of awakening American suspicions and quite readily translate Secretary Kel- |logg’s visit to Ireland instead of Eng- land as a polite but pointed indication | of American sentiments. But while both countries would gladly - join the | United States in a counter demonstra- tion, neither sees any sign of our tak- ing partners to respond to the Anglo- French combination. For Italy the agreement is hardly less damaging than for Germany. True, it does not affect Italian interests im- mediately and directly, for Italy is not rl.ngued by an army of occupation or imited by peace treaties in the matter of its armaments. But if the British and French fleets are to co-operate, then the Italian position in the Mediterra- nean is at once compromised, and the hope, so long cherished in Rome, that some Anglo-Italian partnership might further limit French influence in the Middle Sea becomes vain. Even worse, the spectacle of Anglo-| Prench agreement cannot fail to have| repercussions all over the southeast of ' Europe, where Italy has been seeking to break down French influence and to divide the little entente. Belgrade will see in the new ev-nt adequate proof of British suport of French volicy, which is based upon the defense of the several powers of the little entente. French stock rises and Italian falls. And it is this circumstance which contributes to = (Copyright, 1928.) -zt 4e the manifest cynicism-with wkich the peace. importance of the | counted for so much in the Germm' Naturally, Rome and Berlin see the | NAVAL ACCORD SHOWS EUROPE’S SENSITIVE STATE Dominance of Anglo-French Proposal pollight Undimin- ti-War Pact. Italian press has viewed the Kellozg pact. Moreover, it is unmistakable that Paris feels the strength of its new posi tion. Solemn denials of the extreme :ne terpretations placed upon the new une derstanding are made with the tongue in the cheek. Any agreement is in it< self a tremendous gain. France and Britain have made an agreement, have come together again, are co-operating in the most vital of all matters, that which concerns armaments. French diplomacy has scored a shining, if more or less insubstantial, success in the matter of the Kellogg-Briand pact, for the very signing, which took place in Paris. was a tacit recognition of French supremacy on the continent. France and England and the United State thus appear in close assoeia‘ion. The pact itself carries not the smallest embarrassment to French military strength, while the concomitant naval agreement witnesses the British accept- ance of French military predominance, And the United States in the matter of the pact seems strangely quiescent, while Briand and Chamberlain load it with reservations which leave their hands free in all conceivable emergencies. ‘Thus, when the League Assembly meets again, with Stresemann absent and Chamberlain abroad, with Briard notably less master of his own domestic situation than before and the Germans still recalling the fact that when Strese- mann called upon his friend Briand in Paris he was advised to see Poincare, it is unmistakable that the Geneva af- fair loses importance for the moment, In the year which has passed since the last meeting there have been only two real events and both have occurred withe out League assistance. Furthermore, from Geneva comes the pleasant report that in his talk with Muellet Briand repeated the advice of Poincare to Stresemann and urged Ber= lin to undertake at Washington ne- gotiations which might provide it with the money to buy off allied occupation. Certainly the ‘British were not ignorant of the advice to be given. Is it too much to conclude that they tacitly agreed with the French that ths Germans should be deputed to approach Washing- ton and discuss the possible reduction of debts as a detail in the liquidation of the Dawes plan? Debts Form Dilemma. So far the vast German-American population of the United States, polit ically important, has supported policy of making the allied debtors pay. But what -will be their attitude when the German government approaches the American and informs it that the single obstacle to the evacuation of German soil and the fixation of German repara- tions at a reasonable figure is the American policy in the matter of the debts? Will not this at least bring home to the American people that in the matter of debts and reparations there is only one process done in two motions—the Germans pay the allies and the allies pay us? In fact, done in three times, because we lend the money which the Germans pay to the allies, and they pay to us. The naval agreement shows France and Great Britain working together, at least in the matter of armaments. Con- comitantly, all British pressure upon France to evacuate the Rhineland has ceased. In Paris, Stresemann accom- plished nothing directly; at most he was told a price or perhaps a price and a possible means of obtaining the funds. British and French efforts at ‘Washington to modify American debt policy have failed and the circumstances of the failure offer no promise of suc- cess for a repetition. But France and Britain are agreed about debts as they are about ships and soldiers. They have always been agreed that the United States should cancel, or at least greatly reduce its claims. Now that we have a stake of billions in Germany, as a result of our commercial loans and private investments in municipal stocks, will not our investors see their holdings compromised by reparation claims, which constitute the first lien? All this is a far cry from a relative- 1y small number of gentlemen and offi- cers sitting down at a table and agree- ing about the impossibility of limiting the kinds of ships they desire and the logical and inevitable necessity to limit the kinds the United States desires and they do not. But in international dis- cussions, particularly in Europe, one thing leads to another and once people put their feet under a table theyedis- cover all sorts of common interests. ‘Thus, it is at least superficially credible that, in the midst of the conversations and agreements which have set Europe by the ears, the French and the British also agree that it might be worth while to let the Germans, who were so eager to get their bill fixed and their territory evacuated, try the thing off with Washington and. incidentally, edu- cate the German-American voter to the consequences for the old Fatherland of American debt policy. (Copyright German Nobles Cast Lots in Reichswehr Although Germany is a republic and the national reichswehr, or defensp army, is supposed to be recruited frory all classes of citizens, there is evidency that in fact former nobles still hold tha dominant positions and exercise a pre- ponderant influence. Twenty per cent of all the officers are of noble birth. Of the 18 cavalry regiments 45 per cent of the officers are blue blooded and in the 7th Cavalrv as many as 72 per cent. In the 4th gz~ alry 62 per cent of the officers claim nobility. Fifty-five per cent of all generals, 30 per cent of the colonels and lieutenant colonels. 23 per eent of the majors, 17 per cent of the captains and about 20 per cent of the lieutenants are feudal relics. Rome Cats (I;ninue To Live Amid Ruins Cats are not sacred in Rome, but they have for many years enjoyed a prescriptive right to inhabit some of the ancient monuments of Roman times such as the Forum of Trajan and the small inclosure around the Pantheon. Here those that have been discarded by their owners or have reverted to wildness have long been allowed to live a privileged life in slogical surroundings, rec water from Kkindly tenants houses. Recently, a municipal edict ordered the destruction of these archeological cats, but protests by the public and let- ters’ in the newspapers have brought about a revocation of the stern decree, and the felines are to be permitted to live s before in classical solitude and ing food and of nearby