27 AUGUST 1921, Page 2

To measure the importance of the Conference it is desirable

to think what failure would mean. If after having drawn so near to the achievement of arranging with America the dis- armament of the world, except for policing purposes, we had to admit that the Conference had ended in nothing, we should be in a worse case than ever. Hope and enthusiasm would have been destroyed. Millions of Americans who are not very welt versed in foreign affairs would be ready to believe that Mr. Lloyd George (if only because he did not denounce the Japanese Treaty) had played for failure. Well-instructed Americans, of course, would not believe that for a moment, but a wide- spread feeling of distrust could hardly be avoided.