NOTES ON INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
FROM SEPTEMBER 10 TO OCTOBER 10
Prepared by Allan Westcott, U. S. Naval Academy
POLAND AND RUSSIA
Russo-Polish Armistice Signed.—On October 5 the Russian and Polish delegates at Riga signed an armistice and peace preliminaries providing that fighting should cease on October 8. Early despatches stated that the terms were practically those laid down by Poland. The Poles defined a boundary on ethnographic lines, beginning east of Dvinsk and following the German military line of 1915 to the Rumanian frontier. Poland, it was stated, secured a corridor completely cutting off Lithuania from Russia.
Polish-Lithuanian Agreement.—At the same time as the Riga agreement, the Poles and Lithuanians declared an armistice, awaiting the settlement of their dispute by a commission from the League of Nations. This commission, which includes the Spanish ambassador to France and the Japanese under secretary of foreign affairs, reached Lithuania on October 5, and at its instance the armistice was negotiated.
LEAGUE OF NATIONS
Acts in Aland Islands and Polish-Lithuanian Disputes.—The ninth session of the League of Nations Council was held in Paris on September 16-20, Leon Bourgeois presiding. In his opening speech M. Bourgeois asserted that the submission of the Lithuanian and the Aland Islands disputes to the Council was the best augury for the future of the League.
The action taken regarding the Aland Islands, claimed by both Sweden and Finland, was the appointment of three commissioners to conduct an investigation on the scene. The islands, formerly controlled by Russia, are linked to Finland by a continuous chain of islands and by ice for four months in the year; but the population is said to be nine-tenths Swedish and favorable to Swedish control. The archipelago has considerable strategic importance from a naval standpoint, guarding the entrance to the Gulf of Bothnia.
Agreement to submit the Polish-Lithuanian dispute to a commission appointed by the Council (the action of which appears elsewhere in the notes) was reached by the Polish representative, Ignace Paderewski, and the Lithuanian Foreign Minister Woldemar.
Membership of League.—Rumania deposited ratifications of the Treaty of Versailles on September 14, making a total of 26 signatories that have deposited their ratifications at Paris.
Washington, Sept. 30.—Supplementary data regarding membership in the League of Nations show that in addition to the states already announced as members of the League 13 states not mentioned in the annex to the covenant have submitted requests for admission. These states and the dates of their request are:
Estonia | Apr. 10, 1920 |
Finland | May 8, 1920 |
Georgia | May 21, 1910 |
Iceland | July 2, 1919 |
Letvia | May 14, 1920 |
Luxembourg | Feb. 23, 1920 |
Monaco | May 3, 1920 |
San Marino | Apr. 23, 1919 |
Ukraine | Feb. 25, 1920 |
Costa Rica | Sept. 14, 1920 |
Armenia | May 13, 1920 |
Leichtenstein | July 15, 1920 |
Bulgaria (unofficial) | Sept. 2, 1920 |
In connection with the list of members as already published, the information received by the State Department shows the following dates of their accession to the League:
Original members | Date of accession |
Great Britain | Jan. 10, 1920 |
France | Jan. 10, 1920 |
Italy | Jan. 10, 1920 |
Japan | Jan. 10, 1920 |
Belgium | Jan. 10, 1920 |
Bolivia | Jan. 10, 1920 |
Brazil | Jan. 10, 1920 |
China | July 16, 1920 |
Cuba | Mar. 8, 1920 |
Greece | Mar. 30, 1920 |
Guatemala | Jan. 10, 1920 |
Haiti | June 30, 1920 |
Liberia | June 30, 1920 |
Peru | Jan. 10, 1920 |
Poland | Jan. 10, 1920 |
Portugal | Apr. 8, 1920 |
Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (Jugoslavia) | Feb. 10, 1920 |
Romania | Sept. 14, 1920 |
Siam | Jan. 10, 1920 |
Czechoslovakia | Jan. 10, 1920 |
Uruguay | Jan. 10, 1920 |
Invited members | Date of accession |
Argentina | July 18, 1920 |
Chile | Nov. 4, 1919 |
Colombia | Feb. 16, 1920 |
Denmark | Mar. 8, 1920 |
Netherlands | Mar. 9, 1920 |
Norway | Mar. 5, 1920 |
Paraguay | Dec. 26, 1919 |
Persia | Nov. 21, 1919 |
Salvador | Mar. 10, 1920 |
Spain | Jan. 20, 1920 |
Sweden | Mar. 9, 1920 |
Switzerland | Mar. 8, 1920 |
Venezuela | Mar. 3, 1920 |
Aside from Germany, Austria and Turkey, who are debarred provisionally under the Peace Treaty, the only nations who have not joined the League or made application for admittance are the United States, Russia and Mexico. The two latter because of their disturbed internal conditions have not been invited to become members.—N. Y. Times, Oct. 1, 1920.
Lloyd George on the League.—In an interview for the Lloyd George Liberal Magazine of October 7, the British Premier spoke as follows of the League of Nations:
"We shall not have an effective League of Nations until all the nations come in. You must have America within the League of Nations, and also Germany. Germany should be allowed to come in once she proves that she will respect her treaty obligations. I believe that she will, but now she is on her trial. If she gives proof of good faith Germany will be welcomed within the League.
"I believe, too, that America will come in after the presidential election. When those two events happen the League of Nations will become an effective instrument. At present it is only a league of allies."
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCES
Financial Congress at Brussels.—The International Financial Congress at Brussels, presided over by President Gustave Ador of Switzerland, closed on October 7 after 10 days' session. The work of the conference was handicapped by the failure of the Allied Powers to reach a definite arrangement with Germany regarding reparations. The chief recommendation of the conference was for an international credit system, the details to be arranged by a commission appointed by the League of Nations Council, through which nations could negotiate loans and deposit securities therefore without calling upon other individual powers. The conference report pointed out that three out of every four nations represented at the conference faced deficits for the current year, and eleven out of every twelve countries of Europe.
Communications Conference at Washington.—The five chief Allied and Associated Powers opened a Communications Conference at Washington on October 8, preliminary to a general international conference on communications to be arranged for later. At this conference the American delegates are stated to be chiefly interested in the disposition of former German cables, and free and uncensored use of cables throughout the world at fair charges. It is estimated that at present Great Britain controls about 150,000 miles of cable, or more than that of all other nations combined. The United States controls about 50,000 miles.
Of greater significance, however, according to officials, than the cable mileage possessed by other nations, is that the United States obtain direct information, free from censorship or the control exercised by other nations over cables passing through foreign territory.
The great proportion of cable dispatches reaching the United States, it is estimated in the Government survey, must pass through the control of British, French or Japanese cable lines. Practically all cablegrams from Europe pass through Paris or London. Into London flow the channels of information from Northern Europe and the Mediterranean; into Paris, lines from Germany, Poland, the Baltic States and Africa. Much of the traffic from Paris also goes through London.
It is to remedy this situation and to arrive, if possible, at arrangements whereby cable messages in times of peace may be as free from control and censorship as mail matter under the conventions of the International Postal Union, officials said to-day, that American representatives to the conference are directing their efforts.
The problem of the disposition of the German cables promises to be the most difficult, if not the most vexatious, at the conference. This country is as greatly interested in the two German lines from New York to Emden as it is in the lines radiating from the Island of Yap to China and other Far Eastern points. There is another German line from Monrovia, Liberia, to Brazil.
This Government would not hesitate to take the German lines over if that should be possible, but it is intimated rather that the American delegation will urge that American interests be permitted to purchase some of those lines. Ownership of some of the German cables by America or American interests, it is declared, would greatly assist toward the realization of the general objective.
The Postal Telegraph and Cable Company had a forty-year contract with one of the German cables from New York to Emden, and it is mm desired by American interests to purchase one or both of the New York-Emden lines.
It has not been decided where the general conference, to which all nation will send delegates, shall be held. It is the expectation of officials here that Washington will be chosen by the preliminary conference, but Paris is understood to be making bids. The International Communications Conference called to meet in 1914 was to have been held in Paris, but was called off on account of the war.—N. Y. Times, Oct. 5, 1920.
GREAT BRITAIN
Varied Proposals for Ireland.—In the midst of a reign of terror in Ireland, British statesmen came forward with various plans for settlement. Ex-premier Asquith in Parliament refused to be alarmed at the idea of an Irish republic and proposed to grant Ireland an "unconditional dominion status," though he refused to go into details on the question of control of military affairs and finance. The substance of Viscount Grey's proposal in the London press were that Ireland should be allowed to draw up her own scheme of government on a dominion basis, reserving to Great Britain only control over foreign policy and military forces. The Grey plan unh favored by Lord Robert Cecil, who believed the Irish should be called on to assume the responsibility of settling their own affairs.
President de Valera of the "Irish republic" in a Washington interview rejected the Grey proposal, declaring that the Irish-British problem could be solved only by a treaty "on the basis of a guarantee of Ireland's independence on the one hand, and, if the British need it, a guarantee of British security on the other by some international instrument."
Lloyd George in interviews objected to the plan of an Irish dominion, declaring that, aside from the question of military affairs, Great Britain would not consent to Ireland's controlling her own finances and dodging the burden of taxation resulting from the war.
Carnarvon, Wales, October 9.—Premier Lloyd George in a fighting speech to his Welsh constituents to-day, which was intended also for the work at large, declared that the government intended to restore order in Ireland by "methods however stern" and proceed with its home-rule bill.
The Prime Minister turned down dominion home rule, protesting against the suggestions that the government should go farther than did Gladstone or Asquith, "not because Ireland needs it, not because it is fair to the United Kingdom, but because crime has been successful."
FRANCE
Millerand Elected President.—Paul Deschanel, President of France resigned on September 16, on account of ill health. His successor is former Premier Millerand, who was elected by the French chambers meeting 1? a National Assembly on September 25. The new president selected M. George Leygues, Minister of Marine in Clemenceau's War Cabinet, for the office of premier, at the head of a ministry otherwise unchanged. Premier Leygues has been six times Minister of State and is an aggressive member of the Republican group of the left.
The Millerand-Leygues Government after coming into office adopted the policy of preventing the rift apparently opening in Anglo-French relations, owing for one reason to French unwillingness to attend the Geneva Conference. The new government is likely to meet stiff opposition from the followers of M. Briand, but will have smooth sailing until the reassembly of parliament in November.
ITALY
Government Settles Labor Problem.—During the week of September 16 Premier Giolitti stepped in to attempt a solution of the struggle, verging on revolution, between labor and capital in Italy. Following a series of conferences, the employers on September 18 submitted to the government proposal, which in effect provided for increases of pay retroactive from July 15, and for the appointment of a commission to arrange for "syndical control" of industries. This plan will give labor, as well as the government, a share in the management of industrial establishments. The agreement was accepted by workers in Northern Italy by a vote of 132,000 to 45,000.
Following the settlement, the Metallurgic Union issued orders to workers to evacuate factories occupied by them and after a week's holiday to resume work on October 4.
Split Among Italian Socialists.—On October 2 the Socialist executive body in Italy, meeting at Milan, decided by a vote of 7 to 5 to accept the 21 articles of the Bolshevist creed as drawn up by the second congress of the Third International at Moscow. It is thought that this step will cause a breach between radicals and moderates of the Socialist party in Italy. As indicated by the vote, the former wing now controls the party executive and its parliamentary activities.
BALKAN STATES
Balkan "Bloc" Established.—A defensive agreement between Jugoslavia and Czechoslovakia was signed on August 16. Following this treaty, Rumania also entered the so-called "Little Entente," proposing at the same time that, to make it really effective and dominant in Central and Southeastern Europe, Poland, Greece and Bulgaria should be included. An alliance of all the Balkan states would be in purpose a protective alliance against Russia and Germany, and it is thought would not be objectionable to France, Italy, and other of the western powers.
An official declaration of the parties to the agreement, issued in August, states that its object is primarily protection against the ambitions of Magyars in Hungary; that economic arrangements have been made with Austria; and that "the united power of Czechoslovakia, Jugoslavia, and Rumania is so considerable that no state in Central or Eastern Europe would venture to attack this alliance."
UNITED STATES AND JAPAN
Proposed California Land Law.—The provisions of the proposed California land law, which is directed against Japanese property holders, and which is to be submitted to the voters for ratification in November, are summarized as follows:
It permits the acquisition and transfer of real property by aliens eligible to citizenship to the same extent as by citizens, except as otherwise provided by law. It further permits other aliens and the companies, associations and corporations in which they hold majority interests to acquire and transfer real property only as prescribed by treaty and prohibits the appointment of such ineligible aliens as guardians of the estates of minors consisting wholly or partially of real property or shares in such corporations. It also provides for escheats in certain cases, and requires reports of property holdings to facilitate the enforcement of the act. It prescribes penalties and repeals conflicting acts.
Advocates of the measure declare that it merely parallels the Japanese law forbidding ownership of agricultural land in Japan. The Japanese contend, however, that it discriminates between Japanese and other aliens.
Joint Commission Unlikely.—Washington, September 27.—Administration officials continue to decline to discuss for publication any of the phases of the negotiations with Japan growing out of the proposed anti-Japanese land law in California, but the impression has gone out that a proposal from Tokio that the question be referred to a joint commission for solution would be unacceptable.
The conversations regarding the California law which have been going on between Ambassador Shidehara of Japan and State Department officials are continuing, and, so far as has been learned, the proposal for a joint commission has not been formally communicated to Washington by the Japanese government.
What progress, if any, has been made in the negotiations has not been disclosed. The attitude of the State Department is described as one calculated to prevent the development of a feeling of alarm in the United States that might approach even approximately that which appears to be growing in Japan.—Baltimore American, Sept. 28, 1920.
Japanese Control in Asia.—In the N. Y. Times Current History for October, Morgan Young of the Japan Chronicle writes as follows of the situation in Japan:
The Military Party, which still runs the Japanese Government, probably desires war less than anybody, but it believes in the rattling of the saber, and will rattle it as readily on a point of national dignity as on any other.
But while the talk of war with America is fed by the California debate, its object is rather to get enormous defence estimates passed and to convince America that Japan's "special position" in Eastern Asia is too thorny for serious dispute. American capital is welcome in Eastern Asia, but a must be under the aegis of Japanese militarism.
This brings us to Eastern Asia as a field for Japanese emigration. Japanese themselves prefer South America, but the government does very little to encourage what only means a loss of subjects, and the Japanese so unfailingly become disliked where they go in large numbers that such colonics are only a vexation. In Korea and South Manchuria, as well as in Eastern Siberia, there is still virgin soil of the best quality. It is attractive enough for Japanese settlers (though its climatic rigors are far less agreeable than the softness of California), but the trouble begins when it comes to marketing the produce, for though the land is far from full the native cultivator is an invincible competitor. The Japanese feels no more gratitude to the native competitor for his industry than the Californian does to the Japanese, but he cannot turn him out, and consequently Japanese immigration is but slow. Whether it will be any faster in the newly opened regions of Siberia remains to be seen. However, though in ten years no more people have gone to Korea than can be replaced by natural increase in one year in Japan, the Japanese population on the mainland increases, and remains intensely Japanese. It is the militarist ideal, and even a cultural ideal, to have a great Japanese Empire in Eastern Asia, of which the islands constituting Japan proper shall be only an outpost.
Popular education among such a biddable people as the Japanese has been able to make a religion of loyalty, but it cannot make people emigrate to places that they do not like, even for the sake of empire. The Japanese showed perfect willingness to die in Manchuria. They have yet to show a willingness to live there. But with the strategic and economic control of all Eastern Asia in her hands, and the direction of the spare American capital ready for investment in Asia, the Japanese Government may be able to make Manchuria, Eastern Mongolia, Eastern Siberia and Korea sufficiently attractive to absorb the whole natural overflow of Japan.
MEXICO
Calderon Leaves Washington.—Oct. 5.—Unable to accomplish his mission to the United States, that of settling all differences between this country and Mexico, Fernando Iglesias Calderon, Mexican High Commissioner to Washington, has resigned and plans to return to Mexico City within a week.
At the embassy to-day it was said that the High Commissioner had been given plenipotentiary powers in order quickly to settle all claims against Mexico by citizens of the United States, including the oil question and all other questions that have caused strained relations between the two countries. At the State Department, however, it was stated that the department had not been notified that the commissioner had any such full powers. It was added that the official acts preliminary to recognition of the new Mexican Government by the United States must be performed in Mexico and that government must demonstrate its willingness and ability to fulfill its international obligations.—N. Y. Times, Oct. 6, 1920.
President Obregon Welcomed on Border.—President-elect Obregon of Mexico crossed the border to El Paso on October 7, spoke at a lunch given by the Rotary Club, and was given a cordial welcome by Americans of the border states. Among those expected to be in El Paso during his visit were the governors of Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, and also the governors of Chihuahua and Sonora in Mexico.