DISARMAMENT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 264, 7 November 1932, Page 10

DISARMAMENT.

An address on political problems of the day was given by the Rev. W. G. Monckton to the members of the Writers' Club at their meeting on Friday afternoon. The president, Mrs. I. M. Cluett, presided. The most important question at the present time was that of disarmament, said the speaker. This had been complicated recently by the German demand for equality in arms and by the action of Japan in the Far East. The German demand had roused the suspicions of France, and the .French had never been very cordial towards any scheme of disarmament. The comparative failure of the League of Nations to do anything to settle the Manchurian question, and at the outset to prevent hostilities, had caused many people to lose faith in the League, . and consequently in any large measure of armament reduction. There were signs of Germany and Italy drawing closer together, and this might lead to France and Spain entering into some sort of informal alliance, thus bringing back the old system of balance of power. There was need of a stronjr public opinion in favour of the ideals for which the League stood, if the peace of the world was to be preserved.