Mr. Stimson Reminds

The White House made ready for a major international event: President Hoover's promulgation of the General treaty for the renunciation of war. The ratification by Japan, the last of the 15 original signatories to approve the Treaty, was on its way to Washington. To East Room ceremonies were invited twoscore diplomats representing the ratifying powers. The President had a speech ready. A formal luncheon was to be served in the State dining room. Among the prime guests was to be Frank Billings Kellogg, the Coolidge Secretary of State who brought to fruition the idea of France's Aristide Briand for such a treaty. Calvin Coolidge had also been asked to attend. There were to be band music, cameramen, a nationwide hookup.

On the other side of the world from Washington, however, that was brewing which might make the Kellogg Treaty absurd on the first day of its legal existence. Soviet Russia and Nationalist China, two of the signatories of the pact, were on the explosive verge of war.

Secretary of State Stimson, alive to the embarrassment of the situation, cogitated in his office. He could, of course, communicate what was on his mind to Nationalist China, but to Soviet Russia he could not speak. The U. S. does not recognize the Soviet's existence. Lawyerlike, Statesman Stimson remembered, got out, and ruffled the unused pages of the so-called Four-Power Treaty which the U. S., Britain, France and Japan drafted in 1921. A phrase in this treaty makes it possible for the Four Powers to discuss "freely and fully" almost any Far Eastern matter. Statesman Stimson sent for his excellency Paul Claudel, Ambassador from the other parent country of the Kellogg Treaty and one of the Four Powers. He also called in the British, Japanese and Italian representatives to tell them what went on. Soon from Washington to Moscow, via Paris flashed word that Statesman Stimson thought Russia should be reminded that she had "renounced war."

Arriving in Washington for the White House ceremony, Mr. Kellogg spoke hopefully of his Treaty, predicted: "I don't think there will be any war. . . . The dispute is ... very susceptible to pacific settlement."

Before many days passed Messrs. Stimson and Kellogg received reassuring news. Came formal notices from Russia and China that each would live up to the terms of the Kellogg Treaty (see p. 22). Statesmen the world over applauded Statesman Stimson's perspicacity and promptitude for his "reminder."