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Show NEWS REVIEW OF CURRENT EVENTS Four-Power Pacific Treaty to Be Ratified by Senate Unless All Signs Fail. MARGIN AT LEAST FIVE VOTES' Allied RepdT,tlons Commission Decline De-cline to Pay Bill for American Expenses Ex-penses on Rhine Fighting in South Africa India in Ferment. By JOHN DiCKINSON SHERMAN THE four-power Pacific treaty, It was assorted last week, would be ratified by the senate, unless all signs should full. A margin of at least five votes was predicted. It follows that the other six pacts of the armament conference will be approved as a matter mat-ter of course, If the treaty is ratified. An agreement to vote was reached Wednesday. It was farther agreed to take no more votes on amendments or reservations before the final vote, and to limit debate. It looked last week as if Senator Underwood, minority leader, would come across with at least eleven votes, Instead of the eight he was expected to deliver. Early In the assault on the treaty came the charges that the treaty had been framed by the British and Japanese; Japa-nese; that secret negotiations had been concealed, and that the American delegates dele-gates had been Imposed upon. Secretary Secre-tary of State Hughes thereupon stated that he wrote the treaty, that there was no mystery about the treaty and that It was a good treaty. He was modest about it and he was plain-spoken. plain-spoken. His statement was made in the form of a letter to Senator Underwood Under-wood of Alabama, one of the four American delegates, who as minority senate leader is charged with the onerous job of delivering enough Democratic votes to assure the ratification ratifica-tion of the treaty. Secretary Hughes said, among other things : "The treaty itself is very short and simple, and is perfectly clear. It requires re-quires no commentary. Its engagements engage-ments are easily understood, and no ingenuity in argument or hostile criticism criti-cism can add to them or make them other or greater than its unequivocal language sets forth. There are no secret notes or understandings. "In view of this, the question of authorship is unimportant. It was signed by four powers, whose delegates, dele-gates, respectively, adopted it, all having hav-ing made various suggestions. I may say, however, with respect to the general gen-eral course of negotiations that after assent had been given by Great Britain and Japan that France should be a party to the agreement, I prepared a draft of the treaty based upon the various suggestions which had been exchanged between the delegates. ... I should add that, In order to avoid any misunderstanding I prepared a memorandum memo-randum to accompany the treaty with respect to its effect in relation to the mandated islands and reserving domestic questions. "At this stage, while it was not strictly a conference matter, In order to insure publicity at the earliest possible pos-sible moment, the treaty, as thus greed upon, and before It had been Jigned, was presented by Senator Lodge to the conference in plenary session and Its import and limitations stated. His statement met with the acquiescence of all. "There Is nut the slightest mystery rbout the treaty or basis for suspicion regarding it. It Is a straightforward document which attains one of the most important objects t,-e American government has had in view, and is of the highest importance to the maintenance main-tenance of friendly ret. ions In the Far East upon a sound basis. As the President recently said, In his communication com-munication to the senate, It is an essential es-sential part of the plan to create conditions con-ditions in the Far East at once favorable favor-able to the maintenance of the policies we liavq long advocated and to an en during peace. In view of this, and in view of the relation of the treaty to the results of the conference, its failure would be nothing short of a national calamity." The senate debate over ratification confirms the wisdom of the President's choice of Senator Underwood as a conference con-ference delegate. There are those who consider the senator from Alabama one of the ablest men in public life. He certainly had a large opportunity for his skill as a debater when he attempted at-tempted to round up his recalcitrant followers for ratification. The first day he stood for three hours before the Democrats he has led in so many partisan par-tisan battles, arguing that they should forget party lines and join with the administration forces for ratification. It was almost exclusively a Democratic show, -with the Republicans sitting on the sidelines and watching the astute minority leader fight it out with his unruly followers. The anti-treaty Democrats were trying to trap him into an admission that the treaty in effect constituted an entangling alliance. al-liance. But he insisted on "conference agreement." Some of them "heckled" their leader. Only the unfailing good nature of the Alabaman staved off a stormy session. It was a situation that only an experienced and able man could meet. Next came an assault on the treaty by Senator Rorah of Idaho and Senator Sena-tor Johnson of California, Republican irreconcilables. They questioned the authorship of the treaty, despite the letter from Secretary Hughes. Senator Lodge of Massachusetts, majority leader, made them admit they had not meant to reflect on the veracity of Secretary Hughes. In effect the two senators assailed the treaty as a "quadruple alliance." Senator Lenroot of Wisconsin answered them. The pro-treaty forces scored a victory vic-tory Tuesday when they voted down an amendment by Senator Joseph T. Robinson of Arkansas designed to wreck the treaty. The Robinson amendment would have had the effect of converting the four-power pact Into a league of nations. It pledged ail the signatories to respect each other's territorial ter-ritorial integrity and to commit no act of aggression against any nation outside out-side the pact. Furthermore, it provided, provid-ed, In case of disputes, that outside nations na-tions interested should be invited to participate In conferences held under the terms of the four-power pact. The vote was 55 to 30. Eleven members mem-bers were absent. Six were paired. The five unpaired absentees are all counted for ratification. Four Republicans, Repub-licans, committed against ratification, voted for the amendment : Borah of Idaho, Johnson of California, La Fol-lette Fol-lette of Wisconsin and France of Maryland. Mary-land. Four Democrats voted against It : Underwood of Alabama, Pomerene of Ohio, Ransdell of Louisiana and Williams of Mississippi. Later similar amendments by Senators Walsh of Montana and Pittman of Nevada, both Democrats, were voted down by substantially sub-stantially the same vote. Then a series of amendments and reservations was dumped into the hamper to be ready for presentation before the final roll call. LIFE to Uncle Sam just now must seem just one treaty after another. an-other. Anyway, he presented last week to the allied reparations commission commis-sion in Paris a bill for $241,000,000 for the expenses of the American army of occupation on the Rhine up to May 1, 1921. The allied commissioners registered regis-tered frozen horror, but thawed sufli-ciently sufli-ciently to stick the bill nn a spindle. You see, they were engaged in dividing divid-ing up among themselves a reparations payment of 1.000,0(0.000 gold murks by t;ermrny and naturally regarded the presentation of the American claim which to date is something like $200,-000.000 $200,-000.000 as very bud form. They therefore there-fore washed their hands of the matter and referred it to the allied governments. govern-ments. The French press sets forth what Is presumably the allied view: The United Unit-ed Slates declined to ratify the treaty of Versailles, henre it has no lenl claim to payment under Its terms. The United States made its own separate treaty with Germnny; therefore it should do its own collecting from Germany. Ger-many. The British press some of it thinks that, while Uncle Sam has no legal claim, lie may have a moral claim, but why didn't be sneak ud sooner? All of which lends emphasis to the saying of the Man on the Street: "We have all the real money In the world and for that very reason not a single real friend." Evidently the new funding commission to see what can be done about the eleven billions of allied debts is in for an adventure. DO YOU remember London Punch's famous cartoon depicting a family fam-ily council of the British Lion's restless rest-less br-ood during the World war? Well, the Union of South Afrcia is sure restless. Last week saw the climax and suppression of the strike of miners which has held South Africa In its grip for more than two months. It had all the hallmarks of an attempt at revolution. revolu-tion. The strikers captured half a dozen towns and nearly got possession posses-sion of Johannesburg. Gen. Jan Christian Chris-tian Smuts, the premier, proclaimed martial law, called out all the government govern-ment troops and took command In person. per-son. Censored reports show the killing of more than 1,000 strikers, police and soldiers. Grenades, bombs, machine guns, airplanes and tanks figured in the fighting; cities were bombarded; thousands of strikers were captured. It was real war for a week. The South African Industrial federation then declared the strike off and denied complicity in the rebellion. This man Smuts is a strong man. He has risen from a Dutch general in the Boer war to one of the leading statesmen of the British commonwealth of nations, as he calls it. Many believe Smuts to be the logical successor to Lloyd George. NEW tangles mark the complicated situation In India. The arrest of Gandhi, leader of the non-co-operation-ists, was followed by wddespread protests pro-tests from all the Moslem world. Then Britain was startled by the unauthorized unauthor-ized publication by E. S. Montagu, British secretary of state for India, of a telegram from the India government making demands for the restoration of Turkey. This constitutes nn appeal to the world by a subordinate British government over the head of the Imperial Im-perial government. Lloyd George censured cen-sured Mr. Montagu and demanded his resignation. Mr. Montagu resigned, but talked back, putting Lloyd George and Curzon on the defensive. Lord Derby was asked to take the secretaryship secretary-ship for India and declined. This, coming com-ing upon the failure of the unionists' meeting Tuesday to give Lloyd George a vote of confidence, has raised again the possibility of the resignation of the premier. His political enemies hold It Impossible for him to retain the position. posi-tion. Nevertheless, it has been announced an-nounced that Lloyd George and Curzon will attend the Genoa conference April 10. REVISION of the Republican soldier sol-dier bonus bill was finished Tuesday Tues-day by the ways and means committee, which thereupon reported the measure to the house by a vote of 19 to 5. The program calls for prompt passage of the bill by the house. Report Is that the senate will not accept the bill as it comes from the house and that a long delay in the senate finance committee Is inevitable. The bill provides cash bonuses; 'only for veterans entitled to less iJfan $r0. Four options are given toliters: an adjusted service certifi-FTee, certifi-FTee, farm or home aid, land settlement settle-ment aid, and vocational training. TT LOOKS as if All Fools' Day would A be celebrated by a strike of the coal miners. Secretary of Labor Davis did not succeed last week in getting the operators and men for conference od a new wage agreement. Neither sidt appears to care particularly whether or not the strike comes. The only consolation con-solation for the public lies In the probability prob-ability that some of the wining districts dis-tricts will keep at work. Mary Garden, Chicago's arbiter of grand opera, says that some of the liigb-prieed stars must fill the .louse or take less pay or get out. Uncle Sam is reported to i0 considering consid-ering the negotiation of treaties with Great Britain and Cuba to put an end to liquor smuggling into the Uniter States. Radio experts are predicting thnt the presidential campaign of the future I will be conducted by wireless telephone. tele-phone. What's that story about the mayor who was elected because ba broke his leg and the voters never a-av him? |
