National Affairs: Treaty Maltreated

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The Senator was somewhat disturbed when Senator Glass asked him what would happen, under the treaty, if the League of Nations took coercive measures to settle the Paraguay-Bolivian dispute. He ran his hands through his hair, hesitated, said that he did not think the U. S. could intervene provided the League did not attempt to overthrow the Paraguayan or Bolivian governments. He added, however, that European governments had previously used force in South America without U. S. objection, and that what ever we could do in South America with out the treaty we could continue to do with the treaty. This last statement was typical of the entire debate, the strategy of which consisted chiefly in asking Sena tor Borah hypothetical questions about what would or would not happen, according to the treaty, in various assumed cases of international complications. Inasmuch as other signatories would presumably be equally unhandicapped, the treaty's value as a war-preventative became entirely shadowy.

British Monroe Doctrine. Advocates of treaty reservations point out that sev eral of the signatories have already sharply defined their individual attitudes regarding the agreement's scope and meaning. Great Britain, for example, has issued (TIME, July 30) a very sweeping statement that her right to self-defense includes the right to take whatever measures ap pear necessary in whatever portion of the world British safety may be threatened. Senator Borah said that the Chamberlain note meant nothing at all, inasmuch as it guaranteed to Great Britain nothing that was not already implicit in the treaty.

Thus the debate, with Senator Borah's defense easily twisted into an admission that the treaty did not mean very much of anything anyhow. Meanwhile the fact remained that the treaty would, in all probability pass the Senate, and the prevailing opinion seemed to be that no reservations would be attached to it. Mr. Borah may come out, however, not so much with an instrument that "outlaws war" as with a guarded and general international announcement that war is an extremely deplorable weapon to be used only when a nation really feels it must.