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TELLS OF ROOSEVELT'S PART IN CONFERENCE

Assistant Secretary of Navy Headed Technical Sub-Committee -- Praised Highly by Lord Lee and Secretary Hughes for Enthusiasm and Zeal

"At the first meeting of the general Committee on the Limitation of Armaments, consisting of the plenipotentiary representatives of the five great powers," said Professor George Grafton Wilson, who was a Legal Adviser to the Washington Conference on the Limitation of Armament last year, in relating to a CRIMSON reporter the part taken by Lieutenant-Colonel Theodore Roosevelt '08 at the Conference, "Colonel Roosevelt, Admiral Beatty of Great Britain, Admiral de Bon of France, Admiral Acton of Italy, and Admiral Kato of Japan, were chosen as a technical Sub-committee on Naval Affairs for the Conference. At the suggestion of Mr. Balfour, Colonel Roosevelt was appointed Chairman.

"Colonel Roosevelt's work was indefatigable, judicious, and highly satisfactory to the Conference.

Lord Lee Praises Colonel Roosevelt

"At the last meeting of the Committee on Limitation of Armaments, Lord Lee, the First Lord of the British Admiralty, said he did not like the proceedings of the Committee to be closed without referring to how much they owed to the labors of one individual, a gentleman who was not present that afternoon, and of whom he, therefore, might speak more freely. He referred to the American chairman of the technical sub-committee which had prepared the ground for all the decisions of the committee. He referred to Colonel Roosevelt.

"Perhaps", he continued, "he was entitled to speak of him especially because he had been continuously associated with him in the arduous and most successful work he had undertaken in preparing the ground for the committee, and he was able to testify at first hand and at short range how much the committee owed to him. Perhaps he might be permitted to recall the fact that when he first came to Washington, 25 years before, seated in the same chair of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, was another Theodore Roosevelt, then comparatively unknown, who displayed the same zeal, enthusiasm, and technical knowledge of his duties that the present chairman of that committee had displayed. He could not help feeling that the ability and success which Colonel Roosevelt had shown in this, the first of his official tasks, in Washington, was of a character which would not only bring joy and pride to his father's heart, but a peculiar satisfaction to all his father's old friends.

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"The chairman, Secretary Charles E. Hughes, said that he was greatly pleased at the remarks of Lord Lee with regard to the work of Colonel Roosevelt, and the high commendation which Lord Lee had given, he thought, was richly deserved. He wished to express personally his appreciation of Colonel Roosevelt's indefatigable and intelligent labors."

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