TRACTS FOR THE TIMES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 290, 7 December 1932, Page 6

TRACTS FOR THE TIMES.

DISARMAMENT. (By PRO BONO PUBLICO.) There is an aspect of the disarmament problem that must be about due for discussion again. What are the influences that are operating to prevent disarmament when all the world so ardently desires it? The blame is usually laid on France and French desire- for security, but if all the nations were genuinely desirous of ■peace, then,it would be no difficult matter to give France a guarantee of security for a period of years. I have remarked in these notes that the French are a, peace-loving people. That they deeire and demand also security goes without saying, and more than once they have indicated that a guarantee of security would make material disarmament comparatively easy. Once, for instance, the French Government put this proposition to President Hoover in so many words. Nothing came of it, of course, the Americans were not prepared to back their disarmament talk with logical action. Later on a Frenchman was responsible for the proposal that France, Germany, Britain, the United Statee and Japan should form a "security" alliance. Again, although we are accustomed to think of Great Britain as taking the lead in the disarmament movement at Geneva, it is from the French delegation that the most practical proposals seem to come. The French Premier has gone so far as to give definite shape to a scheme for establishing an international police force, which other nations' so far regard as purely idealistic.

What strikes the reader most forcibly in all debates on these questions is the insistence of speakers on the need for "moral disarmament." What are they referring to? Ostensibly, of course, the reference ie to the absence of a "will to peace." Actually, I think, the speakers are referring to the anti-disarmament propaganda that surges up whenever the nations seem to be getting to grips with the problem. Where does this propaganda come from ? As far as I can see, the only people who stand to gain by the maintenance of armaments are those who are interested in the manufacture of arms. These people are not interested solely in the niakins , of warlike material lor their own country. During the big war British shells were fired by the Turks on Gallipoli, German shells by the Russians against the Germans, American shells by the Germans in France, even after the Americans had got into the war. As you know, there are many curious stories told on this subject. And I think that -while some curious tales could be told of every country, the most striking are those that come from France itself, where, I suspect, the armament firms are really responsible for the anti-disarmament propaganda. The controlling power in at least two prominent Paris papers i& in the hands of men largely interested in the armament business. If disarmament is to be achieved—moral or material—it ought to commence with the armament rings. The peaceful "peoples of the world might then have a chance to put their ideas into practice.