London has now a good word to say for this imbecility, which, though perpetrated "to please the Americans," was almost as inane from their standpoint as from ours. Who outside a lunatic asylum can seriously wish to range the White Race against any other race because of its different colour? It was the negation of statesmanship, to say nothing of common sense-so-called because almost unknown. 66 THE suggestion of another Washington Conference-whether held in Washington or elsewhere, and unless held in the American capital useless as a move in Ameri"Politics" can politics-may have a good Press in U.S.A, but the silence it has provoked elsewhere is almost audible. In the first place many League of Nations enthusiasts had their noses put out of joint, as the peg on which President Coolidge hung his invitation was the presumed failure of the League, which had been in labour during many months on disarmament without so much as producing a single mouse. As the United States has been represented at the Preparatory Commission in protracted session at Geneva, it is on the strength of inside information that Mr. Coolidge discards the affair as abortive. By the Americans it is already ticketed as "another League fiasco." In his Memorandum to the Powers, whose support he seeks for the American programme of further limitation of Naval Armament, the President asserts that the " complexities and difficulties" elucidated in the discussion of the Preparatory Commission have "clearly pointed out that a final solution for the problem of Armament many not be immediately practicable." This he ascribes to the fact that a number of Governments consider that the chief present obstacles to the general reduction and limitation of armaments lies in the interdependence of land, sea and air armaments, and consequently the impossibility of reducing or limiting one of these categories without dealing simultaneously with the others. But those discussions had equally demonstrated that there was little or no chance of "a comprehensive plan covering all classes and types of armament" being agreed upon in "the near future.' Consequently the way lies open for the resumption and development of the more modest and practical American policy so "clearly established by the success of the Washington Treaty limiting Naval Armament." Therefore the United States Government asks the signatories of that Treaty whether they are disposed to empower their representatives at the forthcoming meeting of the Preparatory Commission to initiate negotiations leading towards an agreement providing for limitation in the classes of Naval vessels not covered by the Washington Treaty. The Memorandum adds: Although hesitating at this time to put forward rigid proposals as regards the ratios of Naval strength to be maintained by the different Powers, the American Government, for its part, is disposed to accept, in regard to those classes of vessels not covered by the Washington Treaty, an extension of the 5-5-3 ratio as regards the United States, Great Britain and Japan, and to leave to discussion at Geneva the ratios of France and Italy, taking into full account their special conditions and requirements in regard to the types of vessels in question. Ratios for capital ships and aircraft carriers were established by that Treaty which would not be affected in any way by an agreement covering other classes of ships. Necessity v. Luxury At the hour of writing the Powers are still "considering " President Coolidge's proposition. British Ministers are alleged to be eager to accept it, though we should have thought that in the light of previous experience they would at least open their eyes before opening their mouths, and endeavour to form some conception of what the proposed programme involves to a world-wide Empire whose existence literally depends on Sea Power as compared, e.g., with an immense, self-contained, self-sustaining and effectively invulnerable continent such as the United States. If the British Navy disappeared to-morrow the British Empire would automatically collapse and the British people would starve. If the American Navy were suddenly engulfed the United States would remain intact; the vast Middle-West-the predominant partner in the great Republic-would hardly know that anything had happened but for the scare headlines in the sea-board newspapers. There is, therefore, nothing cognate in the respective Naval needs of the two nations. Our Navy feeds us. The Americans feed their Navy. How, then, compare the rôle of the British cruiser with that of her opposite number across the Atlantic? One is sheer necessity-the other mere luxury. THE Message to Congress transmitting the Memorandum simultaneously presented to Great Britain, France, Italy Tardy and Japan contained one sentence from the President's pen which we hope may not be wholly lost upon those to whom it was addressed, though we are not so sanguine as to expect. Mr. Coolidge told Congress in terms, "the signatories of the Washington Treaty have fulfilled their obligations faithfully, and there can be no doubt that that Treaty constitutes an outstanding success in its operations." Had the Powers not honoured their signatures they would have proved unworthy of further confidence, and assuredly it would be a pure waste of time suggesting another Conference and additional obligations. It is, however, somewhat unfortunate that the Administration should have waited until political exigencies dictated the necessity of a fresh development of the American programme, originating in American needs, before giving this public certificate of character to the Powers whose loyal co-operation made the Washington Conference the success that is now claimed for it. Practical politicians with their ears to the ground could not be unaware of the fact that during the last five years there has been a steady stream of detraction against other Naval Nations, conspicuously Great Britain, who has been openly accused, presumably with the connivance if not on the instigation of the Navy Department in Washington, of violating the Washington Treaty in the spirit if not in the letter. Not only have politicians and journalists participated in this odious campaign, but we have actually had American Admirals-from whom better things were expected-playing up to the Anglophobe gallery by representing the Washington Conference of 1921 as a British booby-trap into which an innocent American Administration was inveigled in order to rob the American Navy of the glory of ruling the waves. Are we now going to be told that the Machiavellian Stanley Baldwin is the real author of President Coolidge's latest Memorandum, and that its objective is to prevent the American people from constructing that Armada of cruisers they could, so to speak, "build on their heads" but for this sinister entanglement of 5-5-3? This preliminary should be settled before any Conference, otherwise if things don't pan out to suit American Jingoes there will be more ill will than good will. THE more thoughtful inhabitants of Portugal are alleged to debit our noble selves with moral responsibility for the melancholy events that happen too frequently The Blight in their country. It was the British, they complain, who invented an impossible system of Parliamentary Government that has been disastrous to almost every nation that has adopted it, notably those of the Latin race. They point to its deplorable operation in Italy, Spain and even France, and the violent remedies to which its victims are compelled to resort in order to get rid of this blight. There is no answer to this impeachment except to say that, whether wisely or unwisely, we invented this institution to please ourselves and because we thought it would suit this country. We could form no opinion as to its usefulness abroad, nor did we, nor could we, constrain any other community to follow our example. Parliamentarism is not working too wonderfully in the place of its origin just now, and it certainly was a fiasco in Spain and Italy, while doubts have been expressed as to its success in France and its durability in Germany. During the past month Portugal has been in the throes of its perennial conflict with Parliamentarism, which has been a positive curse to our ancient ally. Let us hope that at last President Carmona has mastered the situation, and that he will do on a smaller stage what Signor Mussolini has done for Italy and the Marques de Estella for Spain. It was last May that the Portuguese Army invested Lisbon and cleared out the professional politicians who had battened on the Republic since the Revolution of 1910. According to a leading article in The Times (February 12th), "in those sixteen years there had been sixteen Revolutions and armed rebellions." No less than 400 politicians had been Cabinet Ministers. That is a figure calculated to make the Mother of Parliaments sing small and the mouths water of politicians in less-favoured countries. There were constant strikes, bomb outrages, financial scandals, and magnificent programmes of "reform," increased taxation, dearer living and many other disagreeables, making the existence of the average Portuguese intolerable. General It usually takes a good many men to ruin a country, and there is always a chance of the right man turning up to save it. This may have happened in Portugal in the person of General Carmona, who ultimately emerged from the dog-fight last May as President and Prime Minister, and, according to The Times, "made it clear that the new Government intended to govern." If only The Times could, and would, communicate this secret to responsible statesmen nearer home who of late years have lost both the art and the desire to govern and drift aimlessly along from one blunder to another! General Carmona "and his Ministers have made a real effort to improve the situation of the country." They have funded the Portuguese War Debt to Great Britain, have forbidden officers from participating in politicsdoubtless in order to prevent the familiar pronunciamientothey have abolished some onerous taxation, and have raised the status of the coloured races in the Colonies. By such methods they have conciliated many moderate Democrats and gained the good will of the middle classes, but, according to The Times, they have naturally failed to conciliate the Democrats of the Left, some of whose chiefs have been banished in Greek fashion to salubrious but distant islands, and the Prime Minister's reported intention to abolish sinecures in the State Railway Administration caused much indignation among the railway workers. It is as though the British Government deported our Cooks, the Mosleys et hoc genus omne, and "axed" a considerable proportion of Mr. J. H. Thomas's clientele. These various malcontents rose in the first week of February in conjunction with a section of Army and Navy officers who resented the curtailment of their political activities, under |