News of the Week
AFTER a period of painful doubts, which are not yet dispelled, a plenary meeting of the Naval Limitation Conference at Geneva was called for Monday, but it was put off till Thursday, nominally on account of the murder of Mr. O'Higgins. We believe that the British represen- tatives never lost hope of the meeting taking place, and the prospects of its success became brighter this week. Our naval. delegates will not fail to go on with the work given them until their orders are reversed. Lord Cecil is always -a tower of strength at such Conferences, and as for Mr. Bridgeman, we are confident that he looks across a conference-table with the same unruffled persis- tence with which he his faced Harrow and Oxford elevens. Whether he meets opponents at Lord's or colleagues in conference, his attitude is the right one of so doing his best for the game as to challenge the others to do their best. At Geneva he is challenging the United States delegates to do their best to come to an agreement. We have tried to, show in a leading article that if the Americans are not hampered by outside considerations, and will take-up the challenge, as those on the spot surely wish to, there is still great hope that the Conference will do work worth doing.
