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Show NEWS REVIEW OF CURRENT EVENTS Admiral Sims Stirs Up Hornets' Nest by His London Speech About the Irish, SECRETARY " DF NAVY ACTS Mexico Told She Must Sign Treaty to Obtain Recognition Pueblo Rising Ris-ing From Flood Disaster New Parliament of Northern North-ern Ireland Meets. By EDWARD W. PICKARD. Some of our eminent Americans have a positive genius for saying the wrong thing when they are abroad. Closely following the extraordinarily lactless utterances of Ambassador Harvey In his first address in London :omes the speech of Admiral Sims at l meeting of the English Speaking anion in the British metropolis. He is quoted In the press as saying : "I do not want to touch on the Irish question, for I know nothing about it. But there are many in our couutry who technically are Americans, Ameri-cans, some 0& them naturalized and some born there, but none of them Americans at all. They are Americans ivhen they want money, but Sinn Feiners when on the platform. They are making war on America today. The simple truth of it is that they have the blood of the British and American boys on their hands for the obstructions they placed in the way af the most effective operation of the allied naval forces during the war. They are like zebras, either black horses with white stripes or white tiorses with black stripes. But we know they are not horses they are isses. But each of these asses has a i'ote and there are lots of them." Of course the numerous friends of "free Ireland" In the United States were enraged by these words, and Senator Medill McCormick of Illinois n-ent to the front promptly, denouncing denounc-ing the admiral's speech as "reprehensible "repre-hensible and , disgusting." He called the attention of Secretary of the Navy Denby to the address and asked that Sims be disciplined if it developed that he had been correctly quoted. Without bothering the President (vith the affair, Secretary Denby cabled to Admiral Sims the substance of the press reports and ordered him to Inform the department immediately whether or jjoj hg had used the lan-?iijie lan-?iijie attributed to him. The senate, taking to itself some of thg 'Iffllra'.'.? !).arsb expressions, fnanimously adopted a resolution 6r-iering 6r-iering the naval ajfalrs committee to unke a thorough Investigation of the natter. Forecasting his reply to Secretary Denby, Admiral Sims declared he ivould not repudiate a single word of his speech. No doubt both Ambassador Harvey and Admiral Sims thought they were engaged In the laudable task of maintaining main-taining and enhancing the amicable relations between the two great English Eng-lish speaking nations ; but if they had wisdom comparable with their years and experience they would have known that utterances like theirs always al-ways injure rather than aid that cause. On the other hand, K is undeniably unde-niably true that the efforts of cheap American politicians to entangle this country In the Irish controversy are disgusting to millions of American citizens. Of prime Importance In the news of the week was the announcement by Secretary Hughes of the administration's administra-tion's policy in dealing with Mexico. In a sentence, this is that, If Mexico desires to obtain recognition by the United States, she must enter into a treaty of amity and commerce that has been presented to President Obre-gon Obre-gon and in which she will guarantee American property rights within Mexican Mex-ican territory against confiscation. Says Mr. Hughes : "Mexico is free to adopt any policy which she pleases with respect to her public lands, but she Is not free to destroy without com pensation valid titles which have been obtained by American citizens under Mexican laws. A confiscation policy strikes not only at the interests of particular individuals but at the foundations of international intercourse, inter-course, for it Is only on the basis of the security of property validly possessed pos-sessed under the laws existing at the time of its acquisition that commercial commer-cial transactions between the peoples of two countries and the conduct of activities fn helpful co-operation are possible, "This question is vital because of the provisions inserted in the Mexican Mexi-can constitution promulgated in 1917. If these provisions are to be put into effect retroactively, the properties of American citizens will be confiscated on -a great scale. This would constitute consti-tute an international wrong of the gravest character, and this government govern-ment could not submit to its accomplishment." accom-plishment." The Republican majority in the house took steps to discard the Borah amendment to the naval bill, and to substitute the idea of the Porter joint resolution, which concurs In the expressed ex-pressed purpose of President Harding to call a disarmament conference but refuses to tie his hands with instructions instruc-tions or requests, as does the Borah plan. The Porter Idea, it Is said, is the more pleasing to the President, but he will not directly Intervene In ' the controversy. The house Democrats Demo-crats are almost solidly in favor of the Borah amendment. The senate performed a peculiar flop last week in dealing wlt'ji the army bill. On Tuesday, by a vote of 34 to 30, it rejected the drastic army reduction voted by the house, adopting the plan of the senate military committee com-mittee for an army of an average strength of 180,000 during the next year, with a reduction to 169,000 by February 15, 1922. Next day the senate sen-ate reversed itself, deciding, 36 to 32, to reduce the army to 150,000, which would necessitate the discharging of about 75,000 men before the middle of 'next February. The entire bill was then passed without a roll call. It carries an appropriation of $333,000,-000 $333,000,-000 for the army for the fiscal year beginning July 1. President Harding announced to congress his selections for the reconstructed recon-structed United States shipping board. A. D. Lasker, a well-known advertising advertis-ing man of Chicago, was appointed chairman. The other members are: T. V. O'Connor of Buffalo, N. ; former for-mer Senator Chamberlain of Oregon, Edward C. Plummer of Maine, F. I. Thompson of Alabama, Meyer Llssner of Los Augeles and Rear Admiral Benson of Georgia. The selection of Mr. Lasker was criticized sarcastically sarcastical-ly by certain Democratic congressmen and warmly defended by Illinois representatives. rep-resentatives. The Republican national committee, in session In Washington, accepted the resignation of Chairman Will Hays and elected John T. Adams of Dubuque, Du-buque, la., to succeed him. Mr. Adams has been vice chairman, and that position po-sition was given to Ralph E. Williams of Portland, Ore. A new basis of representation rep-resentation at national conventions was adopted by which the Southern states will lose 23 delegates from the number accredited to the Chicago convention con-vention of last June. The old system allowed for one delegate from each congressional district, but under the new plan a district must have cast 2,-500 2,-500 Republican votes in the last preceding pre-ceding election before it may send a delegate to the convention. To have two district delegates there must have been cast 10,000 Republican votes, or a Republican representai ive must have been elected to congress, Under the former plan 7,500 votes gave two delegates. Just before the committee met. one of its most prominent members, Alvin T. Hert of Kentucky, died suddenly in a Washington hotel. Mr. Hert was very , active in the last campaign and President Harding often d him an ambassadorship am-bassadorship and othc high posts. He was a leading business man of Louisville. Louis-ville. Another sudden dirrh that shocked the country was tha: ef Col. Frederick W. Galbraith, natloii;;i commander of the American Legion, tie was killed In an automobile evident near In dianapolis, and Henry Ryan, director of Americanization in the Legion, and Col. Milton J. Foreman of Chicago narrowly escaped death at the same time. With what we like to consider the true American spirit, the people of Pueblo already are at -work restoring .heir citv after the devastating flood that swept through that part of Colorado. Colo-rado. The National Guard Is policing the area of destruction, whlch embraces em-braces about 290 square miles, and all week supplies of food and clothing were being rushed in by all possible means of conveyance. It is not likely the number of dead ever will be known accurately, but it probably reached 500. In addition to the immense property prop-erty damage in Pueblo and other towns, much of the crops and the live stock in the flood area was destroyed. Fears of an epidemic due to the utterly utter-ly disorganized sanitation of the region re-gion were allayed by the prompt work of the medical corps. The American Red Cross has undertaken the complete com-plete rehabilitation of the flood-stricken flood-stricken sections, and it has issued a national appeal for funds that is meeting with the generous response always given in such instances. The railways, of course, are carrying the relief supplies free. The British troops In Upper Silesia are making quick work of pushing the insurgent Poles back out of the disputed dis-puted region and, according to reports, re-ports, they are doing it without any fighting, for Korfanty's men know resistance re-sistance would be worse than useless. The French are looking on, hoping that the interests of the Poles, with whom they sympathize, will not suffer. suf-fer. Meanwhile the German defense forces, which are under the command of General von Hoefer, have ceased their advance in one sector, but have kept going forward in another, taking Slaventitz, Kandrzin and Ujest after bloody fights with the Poles and approaching ap-proaching close to Gleiwltz, which is called the key to industrial Upper Silesia. Si-lesia. Gross Strehlltz, which is held by a French garrison, was surrounded by the Germans on three sides. After the German high court had convicted two minor defendants of cruelty to British prisoners during the war and given them jail sentences, It , took up the case of Submarine Commander Com-mander Neumann, accused of sinking the British hospital ship Dover Castle. Cas-tle. On his plea that he was merely obeying the order of his superiors he was acquitted, and consequently, it is now reported, the court Intends to bring to trial the admiralty chief or chiefs who gave the orders to Neumann Neu-mann and the other submarine commanders com-manders whose cases are pending. The allied council of ambassadors has sent to Berlin a letter taking cognizance cog-nizance of the "good will of the German Ger-man government In its efforts to fulfill ful-fill Its undertakings under the peace treaty, and granting a delay until September 30 for the transformation of the Diesel submarine motors to civilian Industry. From Munich came the word that the Bavarian citizens' guard has decided to disarm voluntarily voluntar-ily by June 30, In compliance with the ultimatum of the allies. This relieves Berlin of one great worry. The new parliament of northern Irelandor Ire-landor Ulster met In Belfast on Tuesday and was formally organized. Maj. Hugh O'Neill, descendant of the famous O'Neills of Irish history, was elected speaker and six of Ireland's thirty-two counties were put on a self-governing self-governing basis. Viscount Fitzalan, the British viceroy and a Catholic, opened the proceedings. Of the 52 members elected 40 were present. The others are nationalists and Sinn Feln-ers. Feln-ers. who refuse to recognize the partition par-tition of Ireland and who will sit on Dail Eireann, the revolutionary parliament par-liament which claims to represent all of the Emerald Isle. The experiment of the British government in thus dividing di-viding Ireland will be watched with intense interest by the world. Bands of men supposed to be Sinn Felners made a bold and Ingenious attempt at-tempt Wednesday night to isolate London by cutting all the telegraph and telephone wires running out of the city. They succeeded to a consid erable extent. A similar attempt was made In Liverpool. |