The Great Adventure at Washington: The Story of the Conference
by . New York: Doubleday, Page & Co. 1922. 8vo, xi+290 pp. $2.50).
‘THAT inspired moment . . . that fateful Saturday,’ and ‘Unique in history’ are the respective captions of the first and last chapters of this book. They, and the title itself, suggest the spirit in which it is written. Very American indeed is that spirit in its hopefulness and faith in human progress; and the fact that the caption words are quoted from Mr. Balfour shows that others share that faith. This confident lookingforward to better things is like bracing mountain air, in contrast to the tepid enthusiasms and languid cynicism that make the records of European conferences such low-barometer readings.
But Mr. Sullivan has given us something very different from an international-uplift, message with the Washington Conference as a text. He has written one of the simplest and plainest analyses of our harassing foreign problems that the post-war period has produced. Possibly the discussion of these problems is clearer for the average reader because his interest is held close to the subject by the dramatic setting in which it is presented. International evils appeared at Washington like prisoners in the dock at a great state trial. And, albeit there was some compromise with justice, verdicts enough were delivered and executed to gratify the public conscience.
The incidents of the Conference are described with the art of the trained press-writer rather than with the pen of the historian. As the author says, in speaking of the introductory session, ‘the vividness of scenes like this is the advantage that the contemporary historian — even though a hurried journalist, with no pretense to exhaustiveness or authoritativeness, or even to absolute accurateness — has over the formal historian who must depend on documents.’ Even the anecdotal passages often have a homely vividness that makes them worthy of permanent preservation. The author carefully sets forth the sources and limits of his information, and where he resorts to surmise to supplement recorded evidence, the reader is duly cautioned of this fact. The portraits of the principal actors are clear-cut and arresting, the interplay of personal and national motives and sentiments is vividly pictured and generously interpreted, and many revealing sidelights, which a more formal and official record would probably lack, are thrown upon actions and decisions.
Briefly, the nine chapters deal with disarmament by land and sea, following the successive phases of the subject as these were brought forward in turn by France, Japan, and then France again; with the Four-Power Treaty, which is described as a by-product of the Conference; and with Japan in Siberia and China. Failures to reach every objective originally set are not minimized, but in each instance we close with some ground gained. Naturally a few of the authors conclusions are debatable, and now and then a careful reader may jot an interrogation point on the margin, less in a spirit of controversy than of further inquiry. But upon the whole this is, within its professed limitations, a very dependable book. A good index adds to its value as a permanent library volume.
VICTOR S. CLARK.