St. Louis Post-Dispatch
June 8, 1919

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= 2 H.C. Fisher, . 8. Pat. Office.) a E Me OF 3h he a oe, age ate ie og rare No: 286. TE eS ee eeteenene — ee a —— Aa ee ee ee be a as Soir Ree Ss UNDAW ST. LOUIS, SUN NDAY ; MORNING. JUNE 8, 1919. -— — eee | ——— | Harden Says German Masses ee ee i _ Really Think Their Army Won i et ee ae eee ee German Kditor Thus Accounts for Lack of Excitement Over Terms of! Treaty—Asserts Clique “That Was in Saddle in 1914 Is ‘*Coming Back.’’ By MAXIMILIAN HARDEN. By Special Cable to the Post-Dispatch. Copyright 1919, by the Press Publishing Co. (The New York World.) June 4. BERLIN, Clarity must come as to what and Allies Are Cheating Them boundaries and economic possibilities Germany will have to reckon with for its: jnear future, but popular agitation exists only in the press and Parliaments. These rage daily, branding the Versailles pro- pomals as the work of deceivers, breakers of the faith and blackmailers, and swear regrettably, in the tone of street-hawkers selling out the con- tents of their pushcarts, that the German counter proposal offers the maximum beyond which the Government in no circumstances will go. But the manufacture of public opinion is not 80 easy as the vanity of dreams. Never has any one committed suicide because he had read in the papers that he had died, and seldom has national anger raged because it was bidden to do so. Despite the roughest shaking, no storm bursts from the wind god’s windbags. Nobody bothers about the national-‘mourning week ordered by the Government and rejected only by the Thuringian Federal state, Coburg- Gotha; and today, when the morrow can bring such fateful conditions, even the secession of Rhineland, when the nation’s existence is en- dangered by the loss of ores, by attempts at s0- clalization and by the pressure of taxes, one plays on all fields of sport and dances in all the ballrooms. All places »f amusement are over- filled and the elevated railfeads, the surface cars, subways, taxis, horse cabs ‘and even butcher earts are densely loaded with people when races are advertised anywhere. 1 Think Only of Self and Quick Gain | Kismet, the Oriental superstition regarding the inevitability of fate, has advanced westward on the way of the migration of nations in arms. In every hour of humanity's great horror it was thus since Babylon fell. Athens fell from the ranks of great powers. Rome's eagles mounted on the ruins of destroyed Carthage. In Boccac- cio’s best city, too assuredly, only a few of the noblest spirits thought over the question of what would become of Florence and its republic to- morrow. In svch a time, which appears to be ending in world destruction among the masses, every one thinks only of himself and quick gain and nar- cotic pleasure. Who, clinging to a plank in a wild ocean, is troubled by the question whether the ship can still be salvaged? The German nation still does not know what has happened or what has provoked against it- self such tremendous anger of other states. Mil- lions still believe, more firmly than Gospel, in the plot and surprise attack of which they sup- pose Germany was the innocent victim in 1914. Others let themselves be misled by the rigid dogma of Marxism into the conviction that cap- italism is to blame for the war, as well as for all other evils in the world, and German capital- ism not more than French and English. Whoever mentions the significance of the ques- { tion regarding blame for the war. hears the. answer slyly suggested by the Governmnt: “Why, we have asked for investigation Ly neutral court, but our enemies won't have it, be- ause they fear they will be convicted; and we cannot permit the accusers to be at the same time the judges’ aa an Won't Admit Law Was Broken S The possibility is not recognized of letting the few neutrals still remaining in Europe—who un- doubtedly would decline such a dangerous job— sit in judgment on a quarrel between 32 against four world powers, including the greatest and strongest. Just as little does one recognize that Germany employed means of warfare no longer permitted by international law or by the mod- ern concept of humanity. — . Only “the hunger blockade” is considered to be barbarous and in violation of international law. That is what the Government says even in Ats latest notes. It says, too, that Germany untarily made itself defenseless because it t a peace of justice, and therefore it was hot really beaten, in a military sense.” From all this there has resulted a distorted picture of the reality. The belief remains wide- g spread that Germany waged a defensive war with - Unparalleled success against superior force; that /. Germany was never beaten, but only gradually weakened by the hunger blockade and demoralized by the Russian propaganda and millions of rebels; and that it was then decided to accept as a basis a ) ‘ Already those who wish to restore the old order feel encouraged. Monarchists, Junkers, Militarists, Pan-Germans and anti-Semites again dare talk loudly and brusquely. As the National Socialists fear being crowded out of the majority by the Independents, whose Berlin or- gan, Freiheit, has 50,000 more subscrib- ers than Voerwaerts, the National So- cialists attach themselves more firmly than ever to the Bourgeoise parties, who write democracy, to be sure, on the signs over their stores but who cannot give practical effect to democracy be- cause of fear for their profits anx money-bags.—MAXIMILIAN HAR- DEN. The masses believe Germany voluntarily dis- carded its armaments, and is now to be cheated, deceived and forced to comply with the most| atrocious conditions ever imposed upon a na- tion, which must annihilate all hope of Germany's | resurrection, “Our enemies were jealous of our thorough- ness,”’ the belief goes, “and they started the war to annihilate us. What they could not achieve by) arms they succeeded in doing by cunning, when) we went into the mousetrap.”’ One hears this daily eVerywhere. The aston- istred stranger who hears it may ask: ‘‘Why, then, did you make a revolution that could be justified | only before the court of common sense? Your) revolution was born of the conviction of the wretchedness of the old system of government | whose inhumanity and practices of lying and/| of deception brought upon you the hate of the whole world, in spite of all your national mani- festation of strength.” One who lives here with senses wide awake will in the pause following the above question, | which may be answered only by shrugs on all sides, realize the grotesque humor of the situa-| tion. Such humor might proceed from the hor- | ror of a vision of a Poe, or from a revolution | which overturns the seemingly rock-firm Kaiser throne, lets more than two dozen deeply-rooted | dynasties disappear, as if overnight, without leav- | the treaty of St. Germain. IMost Serious of Turk Datlienis What to Do With Constantinople Writes Frank H. Simonds Disposition of Turkey in Asia of Minor Import Compared to It—Eu- rope Willing for America to Exercise Mandatory, lingness Is Not Yet -Established. but Our Wil- By FRANK H. SIMONDS, Author of “The Great War’’ and “They Shall, Not Pass."’ PARIS, June 7. WEEK ago I discussed in detail the prob- | “77 : . : A lems presented by the breakup of the Aus- ND still there is no sign of national excitement, although the negotiations on the conditions of peace have entered the decisive phase. tro-Hungarian monarchy, problems which are before the Paris conference and so far as they affect German Austria, will be solved by It remains now to dis- cuss the problems presented by the Turkish em- | pire, which has also collapsed and must be dealt | with in Paris. Turkey presents two distinct questions: The | question of Turkey in Europe, which is minor so | portance Asia, which is, Germany or Austria in area, app-oximately that of Spain. ly represented by gion, there is no question of Greok rights. | the beginning of history Constantinople has been It was the capital of the Byzantine em- | It only fell to the Turks , ‘in the fifteenth century and to the present day ‘ | Greek. | pire, which was Greek. | Greeks ments in the Straits and of the Sea of Marmora are Hellen- | | would | Popes in 'ed States as a mandatory, ing a trace, tears down all the shining stucco from | Germany's facade, appears completely to de- | militarize the country, brings to the helm the party of the most radical Socialism—and after all , that the forces of the new Government are mobil- ized for the defense of the old regime against in- ternational accusations, and every day it is pro- fessed that the formerly imperial Germany never wanted the war, did not begin it, and conducted it in the exercise of nobler morality than was at- tained by its enemies. anywhere. Why does ow sun see it? } the gentlemen who are ruling today are the same who four years ago approved, glorified and par- ticipated in everything the old imperial Govern- ment did, and pledged themselves to their parties that Germany was in the right; and if the actions of these persons were now shown to have been false and the product of lies, might well fear to lose their following at this time and who might not again be able to raise themselves or their far as territory is concerned, but of supreme im- on the strategic side, because it in- cludes Constantinople and the northern shores of the Straits: and the problem of Turkey in or was, an empire greater than with a population The ultimate disposition of Turkey in Europe depends entirely upon the decision of the Paris conference. As to the future of Constantinople, if this city and the surrounding.territories are to | go to the natural heir, to the country most large- ) | the races inhabiting the re- From | of the largest ele- The shores of have remained one the city population. ic in history and in population. a Reasons Against Greek Control a But there are a. dozen reasons why it would be an unwise thing to bestow upon so small a ‘country as Greece, so staggering a responsibility 'as the guardianship of the entrance to the Black | why Did They Overthrow Rulers? | 'garia of any outlet on the Aegean. Sea. It would place ~ —_— ~e ttt — _— oe ee — ~~ tt tn )} and Adalia, are separated from Anatolia. To bestow them would be to deprive Bul- ? Greece in the future across the pathway of a | new which, at least at present, Greece is not pre- pared. The second solution, of the Straits and the Sea of Marmora a manda- tory under the league of nations. Not a few people regret that Constantinople was not se- lected as the capital of the league of nations, the seat of its conferences and the territory in which the league of nations would exercise some- ' thing like the temporal power once held by the ( Rome. This possibility having been eliminated, there was a long discussion of the pos- sibility of consigning Constantinople to the Unit- | quarters of the Euphrates and between Anatolia | separating it from Turkish territory in Asia and bestowing upon it most of the remaining territory of Turkey in Europe. This would have meant to eliminate the Sul- tan. It would have meant putting away the Sick Man out of Europe at last, after 500 vears of in- competence and worse. But the Sultan of Turkey is -not' merely head of the Turkish empire, but the recognized spiritual head cf the Islam, and very promptly there came from British | India and from other parts of the Mohammedan ‘world emphatic Such a happening the sun never befére ane | have had little weight hed there been any clear- fas is likely, Because | not. party to power, in any period that can be fore-. secn. gS Also Must-Share the Blame } For this reason they champion everything said, ordered and done in the empire since 1914, as if it had been their own work. they must also share in the blame, if guilt is fixed As collaborators or confessed. The law should make ineligible for | five years for election to Parliament all persons | who voted for the war credits after January, 1915, for such men cannot today judge with the impar-| tiality which this earnest hour demands and all | are too easily misied to see their wisest course in respect to matters they helped to decide. The National Assembly has the same spokes-.' men as the old Reichstag and the principal men. for peace the 14 points, which formerly had been ( {2 the Government today were Secretaries of State rejected as not to be discussed and now appear tow as harmless and without danger to us.~* oo" in Wilhelm's last house, and to the last they | Continued on Page Eight. /and by not a protests. These protests would cut policy as to Constantinople, but there was The European rations were willing that the United States should undertake the task of re» Russia, for there will be a new Russia. It , impose burdens and repsonsibilities for ‘| \ ) British arrangement, ' tion both as to popaieneen and economic circum-_ larger part of ; : } ; peating in Constantinajie what was achieved in / Havana, but al! Europe transfer of this city to any single European Pow- er, While there is not much enthusiasm at the moment on the part of the United States repre- sentatives. fe: * .An Alternate Proposal It was then proposed, and is now under discus- sion, that Constantinople, Anatolia, which is the larger part of Asia Minor, and Armenia, should be constituted mandatories under the league of nations, Armenia certainly to be acsigned to the J) has agreed against The } ! } i= United States, Anatolia either to the lnited States | or France, and Constantinople, with Anatolia, to the United States if our country agrees to take Anatolia. Over Anatolia and Constantinople the Sultan would have shadow authority, such as is maintained by the Khedive of Egypt or the Bey of Tunis. This solution of the problem of Asia Minor was, however, complicated by innumerable claims, few secret treaties. By the treaties ' in which Great Britain and France agreed to sup- port Italian claims to Trieste and Dalmatia. they ) recognized Italian claims to Dodecanesus and the ? islands of the Eastern Aegean taken in war, and | | te practically all the southern coast of Asia ’ e } to create harbors, it will have to maintain a con- | | truth. in a country where disorder has been the com-/| Of historic fact. ) will take at least half a century to put Armenia | pendency—treated us as a tribute bearer. } HE Turkish problem differs from Tienes of Austria-Hungary only as the races of the territory affected are incapable, at least in any present time, of independence. They cannot govern themselves, they cannot be erected into a semblance of independent countries. They must, in any event, be charges of the Western Powers, and only if the Western Powers were prepared to lay aside commercial and political aspirations would the presence of these nations hold out any real hope of regeneration of the Near East. In these regions, our missionaries and our colleges have contributed enormously to education’ and liberation of the peo- ples from their own darkness. America is a very real force and a very real basis for hope. It may be, as many in Paris believe, that we have an obliga- tion to undertake the task of rebuilding. If the task is to be undertaken, no American should blank the fact that it will be a long, difficult and dangerous one.—F RANK H. SIMONDS. Minor, including the great Gulf of Adalia. Some encouragement was also given to the claims upon Smyrna. But -the allies have already te Greece and have united in asking Italy to abandon her claims to Dodecanesus, in view of the fact that the population is wholly Greek. It results, therefore, that Italy has demanded and will doubtless receive further concessions in the hinterland behind the Gulf of Adalia. the great port of Smyrna and all the south coast, were also to create a separate state out of Con- stantinople and the shores of the Straits, Anatolia | would be deprived of all its outlets to the sea) and some seven or eight million Turks would be penned up in Asia Minor. } Hi The Franco-British Agreement ] much discussed in Paris, | would be to make Constantinople and the shores As to Anatolia, previous agreements have made this question difficult also. , ithe French were to have the Gulf of Alexandretta and Armenian territory between the Taurus Mountains ? about Adana. This would deprive the Armenians of an outlet on the Mediterranean, and under ' American impulsion France has been persuaded to abandon this part of her claims. True, Arme- nia, a solid block of hinterland about the head- and the old Russian frontier, has all along been indicated as the site of the Armenian state, but in a very large part of this area, as a result of, On the) other hand, the collapse of Russia has made pos- | massacres, Armenians are in a minority. sible a union with Turkish Armenia and Russian Armenia, districts which are in far better condi- stances. But it must be 5 aialaieas that if there is great opportunity in Armenia, there is a stupendous task, increased by the rivalries of the surrounding races. she is bound not alone to demand the retrocession of her own Armenian districts, but also of those other Armenian districts, and, for that matter, of course, Constantinople, prom- ised her in her 1915 agreement with France and Great Britain. French interests in Syria and British concern on the Euphrates will be equally affected by the erection of a relatively strong Armenian state with what both will regard as the hinterland of the Syrian and Mesopotamian countries, nourish the hope of reclaiming his Armenian provinces. Nor will the task be lighter in view of the age-long feud between the Mohammedan Kurds, actually a majority now in Armenia. = If the United States should take Armenia alone Mandatory in Armenia it will have to build many railroads over a dif- | China and lording it over China and the Chinese ficult country and many highways. It will have siderable army over an extended period of time mon circumstance for a thousand years, where ra- cial feuds have led to massacre time and again. It’ Former | EANING back in his chair at his hotel in Japan today. Roosevelt,” because of his habit of speaking his mind, because he cuts corners, because he pierces through the conventional diplomatic pretenses. _ they Thus the’ whole of the western coast of Asia Minor, with | If one | .ican-Japanese relations in the Far East. Under one Franco- | and Amanus, If Russia ever regains her full strength, ' normal, while the Turk may be expected to. the two peoples. pwr, on. fe 5 a «thy : ; bate. MNRAS “ ae ~ ee PAGES 1—14 © -. ee ee — China, Not J apan, the -—S. -j——j« Aggressor in Far East, » . — o —_ > © ooo = Sa oo . Baron Goto Declares Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Says There Is Little Danger of Conflict»-Between His People and Americans—Any Misunderstandings Deplored by the Dominant Political Figure of the Orient. | a - By Adachi Kinnisuke, A Special Correspondent of the Post-Dispatch. NEW YORK, June 7. New York, a few days ago, Baron Goto talked with me. He talked forcibly, directly, au- | thoritatively. He is the most dominant political figure in He has been called the “Japanese Than this same Baron Goto no one has served his country in larger or more varied capacities. He was the first civil governor of Formosa; then switched him over to Manchuria, and he ran the South Manchurian Railway. For some years he presided over the Imperial Japanese rail- way system. Terauchi called him to the Min- istry of the Interior in his Cabinet, and then, as Foreign Minister, he became an international fig- ure. There are those who see in him the next Premier of Japan. From this it should be clear that Baron Goto knows what he is talking about. “Isn't it about time,”’ I said to him, “that Japan _ should find a man big enough to come right out and say that American and Japanese interests _in the Far East do not coo and tune like a pair of mating doves; Italian | and then talk of the practical remedy?” assigned Smyrna that in more than one point they collide? Why not frankly admit the fact [ Believes in League of Nations _——— “American-Japanese collision in China? Harp- ing on it, emphasizing it, advertising it, pin-prick- ing the sore morning and night, do not cure it. It raises all sorts of ghosts in the nightmare tan- gle of the Far East. I do not believe in the night- mare factor of political phantoms. I do believe in the power—in the healing ability of the league : of nations,’ said Baron Goto in answer. “Pre-eminent statesmanship of the world fa- thered the league. It should be wide and sane enough to solve whatever may arise in the Amer- If it cannot, then the situation is much graver than we have any idea. “The very premises from which so many peo- ple approach the extreme Eastern situation are wrong. Why so much insistence on American- Japanese friction out there? In my judgment there is no graver cause for American-Japanese collision than this persistent insistence on this very point. The most of the talk about the Amer- ican-Japanese collision of interests is based upon rumor; 90 per cent of it is plain, unadultgrated stuff of which ghosts and nightmares are fash- ioned. - His Story of a Samuari | ee ieee tt tie ~~. Be ge Sy ge abe Si a a ae a te | | : : } : : MERICAN-JAPANESE collision Ai: China? Harping on it, empha- sizing it, advertising, pin-pricking_ the sore morning, noon and night do not cure it. It raises all sorts of ghosts in the nightmare tangle of the Far East, I do not believe in the nightmare fac- tor of political phantoms. I do believe in the power, the healing ability of the league of nations.—BARON GOTO. over the gentle and ever guileless China. And America is perfectly scandalized at the very thought of it. In the old days, when autocratic China in his most offensive form lorded it all over the petty’ Asiatic states, oceidental admira- tion for her seemed akin to adoration. Her physi- cal proportions imposed themselves upon the imagination of the Occidental Powers; so did her teeming millions of people. The more insolent and the more oppressive the Chinese autocracy proved, the more respect she seemed to com- mand at the hand of the Weststh countries. if her attitude were extremely haughty to the Occi- dentals, her barbarous arrogance was utterly ua- bearable to us, the smaller Asiatic Power. | “And it is this China-—now that it has been shown before the eyes of the grorld that she is ¢ another Aesop's frog-—-who pak ama the arro- gance of Japan. She demands that the rest of the civilized world should protect her and uphoid her while she tears up her solemn treaties with Japan, under the plea, forsooth, that she had signed them under duress! [ Japan’s Great Work in Formosa nae ‘‘Much, very much, has been said in this coun- try of Japanese aggression in China. As a mat- ter of cold history there is only one island which Japan took from China. That is Formosa. Let our American friends look into the story of Tal- wan, as she is called now under the Japanese rule. Let them compare the conditions of the islanders—their present conditions—to those pre- vailing at the time of Chinese occupation. Ninety per cent of the islanders are Chinese. Are there any of the American people who think that the majority of the islanders today, in spite of all the improvements in their physical wellbeing, would rather go back to the Chinese administration of old? All they have to do is to take a referen- dum on this matter. I am sure that the Govern- ment df Japan would be glad to abide by the decision. From what I know of the Formosan } conditions and Formosan people, I think their * } f | ‘ : } ' “There was a Samurai once upon an ancient | time who drew his sword and slashed away at a stone pillar—for no other reason at all than that the night was dark and his imagination was | policy of Japan. ‘iit up a bit too brightly—you have heard the \ story, haven't you? Human beings are imperfect; human states are not without flaws. Nor are in- ternational relations. But all of us turning into so many Jeremiahs and adding our lamentations to the world’s woes will not improve anything much. War and dissensions among nations are not the normal condition of things. It is as illness is with the individual. war we have had 10 years of peace. healthy tions that are vital and worth while. “IT am not disturbed by these misunderstand- condition of international rela- ° voice would be overwhelmingly for the Japanese Administration. “An impression seems to prevail here that all the leaders of China denounce Japan and her policies. That is wrong. Some of them are vo- 'ciferous against what they call the autocratic They judge Japan by the Chi- nese standard; that is why they know very well what China would do if she were in the com- manding position in which they find Japan of today. When they decry the unholy Japanese am- bition they are simply denouncing what China has always done in the past, when she was in power , over the weaker sisters among the Asian states. / She is fighting the dark children of her own guilty To one year of ; And it is the ( / * ings between the United States and Japan which | are being so persistently advertised by certain peoples,’ continued Baron Goto. “As far as I can see, the so-called misunderstandings are al- ready mothering better understandings between Witness, for example, the ex- posure of the German intrigues and propaganda to embroil us in war with the United States: witness the effect of the Zimmermann scheme of the Ger- man-Mexican-Japanese alliance. “From what I hear, great capital has been made out of the alleged Japanese dominance of China. Some of our good American friends seem to think even that Japan is oppressing the people of with high hand. Nothing is further from the Quite the other way about—as a matter ' China has tried both to op- press and dominate Japan—not Japan China. Time was when China looked down upon us as her de- And on ite feet, but on the other hand there is no | that was not g9 many centuries ago, either. mandatory within the gift of the league of na-| selfish human service. selves are industrious, their country has great Continued on Page Nine. At that time the oppression and arrogance with tions which would offer a greater chance for un-| Which China treated us seemed perfectly nat- The Armenians them-/ "ral to the people of the United States. And now suddenly it has been discovered that the Japa- nese are playing the part of a monster tyrant ’ . political conscience when China paints Japan in the crimson colors of a monsjer tyrant. a “Chinese politicians of this type are ever pola- China Fighting a Fantom } _oning the sacred pledges of Japan to her people. : ! They cannot receive the promises of Japan with- out suspicion. This also comes from the tradi- tional political mode of thought In China. Chi- nese politicians are loud in speaking of ‘O-Do’ (Wang Tao) and of ‘Ha-Do’ (Ha-Tao). By ‘O-Do’ they mean the administration of the country through the gentle, humane methods worthy of a sage King, and by ‘Ha-Do’ they mean the onerous | | | | | } ' oppressed by a militant autocracy. Now it has been the time-honored usage with a certain school ) of Chinese politicians to speak loudly of O-Do— the way of the sage Kings—when they are mere- ly talking; but when they come to the actual administration of affairs of the country they adopt the criminal methods of armed tyranny. It is not unnatural, therefore, that the Chinese politicians are ever inclined to read into the protestations of the Japanese Government a meaning which le not there at all. When Japan pledges her honor to do certain things, they at once conjure up some- thing totally at variance with the substance in- tended. “Take, for example, the case of the German lease of Shantung. When Japan says that Bas. Continued tac age eR a ty en es ~ * SOE An A Ai Se: laa a lp ipl ag .