DISARMAMENT.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18194, 3 October 1924, Page 9

DISARMAMENT.

DEBATE ON PROTOCOL. "GREAT STEP FORWARD.*' ST CAB T Z pEESS ASSOCIATION CC'i , laxstrau.*.:; a:;d y.z. cable association.; (Received October '2nd. 8.30 p.m.) GENEVA. October 1. The galieries were crowded when the Assembly of the League of Nations opened irs lull-dress debate on the Disarmament Protocol. Seventeen delegates spoke, tie general tone of the speeches being one of satisfaction at the League s great step forward towards securing peace. The hope was expressed that the Protocol would be universally signed and ratified. M. Briand gave an assurance of France's co-operation in carrying out the Protocol, and declared that when published it would create such enthusiasm among the masses that an atmosphere of peace would become apparent everywhere. The finest thing was that the Protocol made no difference between big and little nations. The Protocol will bo published iuliight. The essential points iu its terms have been covered in previous cables.

"TO KILL WAR." PLAN LEAVES NO LOOPHOLE. AXD IC.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION.) (Received October '2nd, y.lO p.m.) LONDON, October 1. The Geneva correspondent of the "Daily Chronicle"' says the general report presented to the League Assembly states: — "Our purpose was to make war impossible, to kill it, to annihilate it. The plan now drawn up leaves no loophole. It prohibits wars of every description. Arbitration is provided for ovcry kind of dispute, and aggression is defined in such a way as gives no cause for hesitation. We have been led to fill gaps in .the Covenant and to define sanctions, so that no possible means may be found for evading them, and so a definite basis is created for a feeling of security. "Finally, a conference on the ret duction of armaments is indissolubly bound up with this system. There can be no arbitration or security without disarmament, nor disarmament without arbitration, and the security and £->eacc of the world is at stake." Lord Parmoor emphasised the point that every Government must be free to decide to what extent, and in what form, it could best co-operate in supporting- the Covenant and giving assistance to a vietim of aggression. It was hardly necessary to contradict the absurd statement that he offered the British Navy to the League. The Protocol was but the first step. Its provision for arbitration and security must remain in abeyance until a Disarmament Conference had been euccessfully concluded.