DECLARES CHINA IS THE GAINER BY CONFERENCE

Before an immense audience of more than 500 people, a large proportion of them students, which filled the New Lecture Hall last night. Professor G. G. Wilson of the University, and Professor G. H. Blakeslee '00 of Clark University gave a graphic account of the great events which have absorbed the attention of Washington and the world during the past three months.

Professor Wilson, in the initial speech of the evening, traced the history of the limitation of armaments problem, sketching its growth from the Napoleonic wars a hundred years ago to November 12 last.

"In 1921," he said, "the States of the world, burdened with overwhelming debts, hoped for release from competition in armament expenditure. The invitation of the United States to a conference upon limitation or armament was welcomed, but there was much skepticism as to possible results in a world where disorganization and suspicion prevailed."

Professor Wilson went on to tell of the events of the opening session on November 12, how this underlying film of distrust was swept aside in the wake of the great ovation accorded Secretary Hughes when the latter proposed concrete measures for the immediate scrapping of naval forces, how the assembled plenipotentiaries were engaged for three months in searching consideration of the Treaty, and how the final draft agreed in every essential with the original Hughes document.

The results of the Conference in the Pacific and the Far East were laid down in detail by Professor Blakeslee, who picked as his opening topic the propotious settlement of the Yap problem.

"Six months ago", said the speaker, "Yap was an acute issue between Japan and the United States. Today the Yap question is settled. While Japan seems satisfied, the United States has obtained practically everything it has ever asked for, enjoying exactly the same rights and privileges as the Empire of Japan in everything which relates to electrical communication. In the other islands making up the Japanese mandate, the United States has secured all rights enjoyed by any member of the League of Nations, and since the strategic value of these islands is great, it is of particular importance that Japan has repeated to the United States the pledge previously given to the League that it will never build fortifications or naval bases anywhere on any of these groups.

"Japan's claim to political dominance in China and the Far East has been scrapped. What this claim means was illustrated during the World War when Japan insisted on acting as the official censor for foreign communications to China. This contention of militaristic Japan, however, has now been overthrown by the Washington Conference, and nearly everything done by Japan in the Far East for a decade has been considered by the nine nations of the Pacific.

"The Anglo-Japanese Alliance has been scrapped. This was a menace to the stability of the Far East because under its protection and by its moral support--although against the wish of the British Government--Japan (at least militaristic Japan) has made aggression after aggression on China. It was the Anglo-Japanese Alliance which was the real cause of the bitter Shantung controversy, for it was this alliance which gave Japan the opportunity of seizing Shantung. In place of the Anglo-Japanese alliance is the now well-known Four Power Treaty between Great Britain, the United States, France, and Japan, the latter pledging themselves to respect each other's rights in the Islands of the Pacific, and in the event of a dispute to submit the matter to arbitration. An obvious advantage obtained by the United States is Japan's official pledge that it will respect American ownership of the Philippines.

"The 'Open Door' has been nailed open. Now all the nine Pacific states have, first, agreed to a definition of the Open Door, and, second, promised that none of them will week or obtain any concession which will violate this principle. The nine Pacific nations have pledged themselves to lay bare every agreement of any kind which they may have with the Chinese government. They have provided further that an international commission shall sit in China to pass upon all future requests for concessions and exclude any which may be in violation of the Open Door.

"Summing up the work of the Conference with regard to the Far East, it has removed from the regions of the Pacific the growing menace of an American-Japanese armed conflict; and made it possible to look into the future of this great ocean with a reasonable assurance that it contains not war but international peace.