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Following up this line later in the week, British Foreign Secretary "Uncle Arthur" Henderson made a concrete proposal: that Articles XII and XV of the League Covenant—which envision recourse to arms among member states in certain circumstances—be amended into harmony with the Kellogg-Briand Pact renouncing war and strengthened to give the League Council greater war-scotching potency.
Five-Power Disarmament. Referring to progress made in his naval disarmament pourparlers with President Hoover via Ambassador Dawes the Prime Minister raised an international furore by implying that all but three of 20 points of difference between Britain and the U. S. on this question had been ironed out. What were the three points? Correspondents tried so hard to guess that they well nigh ignored a much more significant passage in which Mr. MacDonald said, "What we [Britain and the U.S.]want to get is an agreement which, having been made, can be a preliminary to the calling of a Five-Power Naval Conference, the other Powers being as free to put in their proposals and we being as free to negotiate with them as though no conversations had taken place between America and ourselves. The only value of these conversations when the Five-Power Conference is called is that we ourselves will not have to look to each other. . . ."
Repeatedly Mr. MacDonald told correspondents last week that he expected shortly to announce complete agreement with Ambassador Dawes, but in Washington the Administration distinctly cooled, and Secretary of State Henry Lewis Stimson snappishly observed: "It will still require a considerable period of hard work before an agreement ... is reached." An impression lingered that the Prime Minister had embarrassed the President by flaunting the fact that at the Five-Power Naval Conference (of which Mr. Hoover approves) it may happen that the whole Anglo-U. S. naval accord will be thrown into just the sort of European squabbling-pot so distasteful to most U. S. Senators.
Arbitration Advance. The most concrete passage in Scot MacDonald's idealistic speech dealt with the so-called "Optional Clause" of the World Court protocol, signatories to which bind themselves to accept the arbitral jurisdiction of the Court in all legal disputes. Said Mr. MacDonald: "I am in a position to announce that my Government has decided to sign the optional clause. [Prolonged cheers from statesmen of the minor nations, most of which have signed.] The form of our declaration is now being prepared." Later Prime Minister Aristide Briand said that France, which has adhered with reservations to the Optional Clause, would follow Britain's lead and re-adhere without reservations of any kind.
"Not to Perish!" As he rose to his climax Socialist MacDonald launched on a theme seldom seriously dealt with by League statesmen: Peace in the East. "There is an Old World," he cried, "old in civilization, old in philosophy, old in religion, old in culture, which hitherto has been weak in those material powers that have characterized the Western peoples. But that Old World, wrapped in slumber as we thought, has now become awake . . . and is asking us to grant it ... the freedom we have been nurturing and nourishing for ourselves for so many gen- erations."
Striking the tribune with clenched fist the Prime Minister went on: