It is repugnant to have to begin the fund and the desired $4,000. My|despondency, but it is also very difficult to feel much hopefulness about the Washington Conference. The abolition of submarines having been point-blank refused, while the naval disarmament scheme obviously much endangered, whatever the embroidered optimism of Reuter's Special Service and the Press Bureau may say, we learn that Mr. Elihu Root has brought in a special resolution to forbid the torpedoing of commercial ships without warning and to insist that regarding the visiting and searching of these ships. The same day's telegrams also reported another no less brilliant suggestion about -aircraft. "It is understood," says Reuter, "that the report of the Sub-Committee on aviation will recommend that no limitations shall be placed on the construction of aircraft, but that their use in wartime shall be sharply defined." To-day's telegrams contain the usual delusive amplification, speculation and benediction of these precious proposals. We do not wish to appear rude to aman of Mr. Root's eminence, nor unnecessarily to revive mem-ones of "scraps of paper" and ensuing atrocities during the war, but it would really seem as if Mr. Root and the' Aircraft Sub-Committee had never read or heard anything about the behaviour of certain submarines and aeroplanes during the war. and of the sharp contrast it presented with pledges previously given at The Hague. One begins to fear that Washington has been sitting too long upon its eggs and that they are addled, or that the attitude of France has demoralized the delegates generally. At any rate something better than the proposals quoted will be wanted to revive any spark of faith in the Conference and to justify so much expensive deliberation.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.