DRAWING THE LION'S TEETH

The great diplomatic game on the International chess board is rapidly approaching a stalemate. Italy's demand for parity with France and "American frankness" in not signing a consultative pact have, M. Briand states, "opened a way for France to maintain her present figure." Though this would mean naval stabilization, it would also mean an ever larger building program. It does not seem likely that the fat figures of Mussolini's Italy will accept a more painful reducing diet than France. Mr. Friedrich, who is interviewed in this issue, points to a less superficial reason for this apparent failure which he finds in the pressure of big business on government. At any rate, newspaper correspondents have come to the conclusion that the French figures must be accepted or auxiliary limitation given up entirely.

When the naval conference first came into being, the opinion was generally prevalent that disarmament would take place. It was wildly suggested that war might even be abolished altogether. In the midst of the journalistic paean of praise that followed, Bernard Shaw was heard to remark that the only thing that the conference would determine would be whether the next war would be fought with twelve or eighteen inch guns. Perhaps the great dramatist had seen too many post-war scraps of paper scattered before the wind of national feeling and industrial competition.

Although parity and naval stabilization are the first steps toward ending competitive feeling between nations, it is disappointing to find that Europe and the United States are not yet ready for a wholesale reduction of armaments. The observer who looks at the present London parley is forced to come to the conclusion that the pre-war mentality has not yet been discarded, with its jingoistic policy of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Profit from industry gained on such basis is profit without honor in any country.