News of the Week
rimrE PRIME MINISTER has gone to Geneva under a serious physical handicap and general sympathy will follow hint there. From one point of view his journey may be all to the good, for since he is likely to take no part in the routine work of the Disarmament Conference or the Assembly Committee on the Far East he should be freer than he is at home from the strain of reading documents. The most important part of Mr. MacDonald's visit should be his conversations with Dr. Brilning and Mr. Stimson. With both he will no doubt talk Disarmament, but Mr. Stimson can have nothing official to say on Reparations or even War debts, and the German Chancellor has no special interest in the Far East. The American Secretary of State most decidedly has. It is probably that, even more than the Disarmament Conference, that has brought him to Geneva, thought the Conference forms the necessary pretext. He is bent on developing to the utmost his doctrine of the non-recognition of any situation brought about in defiance of the Kellogg Pact or any other inter- national treaty, and any declaration the Prime Minister can make in support of that eminently sound principle will be counted to him for righteousness in the United States. There are many other points that can only he cleared up in a personal conversation, most notably the question of what steps.the United-States and Great
Britain arc prepared to take in the event of Japan's refusing to settle her dispute with China by pacific means and even resorting to force again. Too often in the past six months each country has suspected the other of holding back. There can be no room for suet, misunderstanding with Mr. MacDonald and Mr. Stimson both in Geneva. • . • * *
