The Press Friday, March 14, 1919. Conscription and Disarmament.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 16471, 14 March 1919, Page 6

The Press Friday, March 14, 1919. Conscription and Disarmament.

Tho latest messages concerning the Paris Conference hold some encouragement for those who expect a peace that will bring about disarmament and the extinction of war. Tho decision in favour of commanding that Germany's army shall be limited to about 100,000 men, and that these shall be twelve-year volunteers, is described by one enthusiastic correspondent as " the doom of conscription everywhere." This is a very wide conclusion to draw, but it can hardly fail to appear, 011 an examination of the map of Europe and. of the pages of history that a Germany in which there is no risk of aggression, no great military machine, no arrogant War-Lord with a mailed list, will mean a new Europe. Many of tho difficulties in tho way of a settlement by tho Conference are seen to spring, whon traced back to their source, from the natural N and legitimate anxiety of Franco Concerning her Western and North-western frontiers. If that cause for anxiety is removed, and surely removed, there will remain of international cares and jealousios only sach as the tremendous might of Britain and .America can easily regulate. The wholo world situation will be eased, and tho way will be open at , least to relief from the burden of bloated arma-

ments. Mr iiloyd George emphasised this point Very strongly in his speech at Bristol on tho eve of the general election last December. He declared clearly that when peace came the Military Service Act would lapse, but whether conscription would be required in the future in any shape or form depended, not upon what any political leaders said, but "entirely on the terms of "peace." It was the existence of conscript armiog on the Continent that inevitably rushed the world into war:—

"\ou cannot have these gi'cat military machines, with their power, with their splendour, with their clatter, and with the sort of feeling that they give to tho men behind them that they are irresistible, without tempting the men at the head of them to try their luck with those machines.

• • . If you want peace, if you want permanent peace, if you want to prevent the horrors of this war being repeated, you must put an eud to conscript armies on the Cortinent of Europe. I see, Mr Thomas says, 'Supposing you fail?' "Why should you fail? "What does it mean? Germany, at the beginning of this war, had an army, I think, of about five millions; Austria had one of three or four millions; Russia one of about six millions; Turkey one of two millions; and even Bulgaria had one of a iniliion. Now that is over twelve millions. Is it conceivable that in any Peace Conference we aro going to allow these countries to go on organising armies of millions against their neighbours again? If we are, then all I can tell you is that the Feaeo Conference is a farce and a sham. The first thing to do, believe me, is to prevent a repetition of the blunder of the past by making it impossible for these great conscription armies to oxist in the future, and if anyone goes to the Peace Conference feeling that this cannot be done then all I can say is he is not fit to go thero as a representative. So that the real guarantee against conscription in this country, and in every other country, is to put an end, by the terms of the Peace Conference, to these great conscript armies. If you forbid Germany to raise an army of five millions, Austria to raise an army of four millions, Turkey her army of two millions, and Bulgaria her army of a million, what nocd will there bo for other countries to raise these big armies?"

Thus tho drawing of Germany's teeth, if Mr Lloyd George, whose views are shared by Mr Balfour and Mr Wilson, has reasoned correctly, will mean much rpore than tho liberation of Europe from any German menaco. There re-; mains the naval problem, and in the last resort, since Britain will not give up lior power on the sea, that problem rcduces itself to the question whether tho world will trust Britain. Fifty years ago Europe neither liked nor trusted Britain, hut the Europe of 1868 was poisoned by a conception of world policy and national policy that was shot to pieces by tho firßt British gun fired in the great war.