THE DISARMAMENT CONFERENCE.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20510, 1 April 1932, Page 16

THE DISARMAMENT CONFERENCE.

|MR HENDERSON'S SPEECH, j i 1 ' BREAKING THE VICIOUS | CIRCLE. j i _____ i l CntOK OUI OWI COBBSSrOVDEXT.) ] . * LONDON, Fehruary 15. j i In his speech opening the first "World j t Conference on Disarmament at Geneva, j j Mr Arthur Henderson, the president,] j referred to the situation in the Far I ; East. I It was imperative, he said, that all ; the signatories or the Covenant or the J League or Nations and or the BriaudKeliogg Pact should make it their bu-i-I ness to ensure the strict observance j or" the.M.- two great safeguards against ' acts of violence and oi war. As•■iviubled here ao the chosen spokesmen 'j of seventeen hundred million people ' (lie continued;. There is no human i being, whether his home is in one oi j j the great centres of industry and popu- | i lation, in the deserts of Africa, in j the jungles of the East, or amid the j ; ice of the Arctic regions, who has not | j some one here to speak in his name, j i At this Conference—the most import- , ; am international gathering since the i ■ termination of the World War in K'lS j —some sixty Governments are re pre- * ; seined. There has never been a Con- i ' ference with a task more urgent or potentially more beneficial to mankind. ; A? no iornial agenda paper has been : circulated, it is or primary importance , that we should elearlv understand our task. I would state it under three I head< : : fa> To arrive at a collective agreement on an effective programme of practical proposals speedily to secure i a substantial reduction and limitation ; of all national armaments. j (b) To determine that no armaments : may be maintained outside the 6Cope of i that treaty by which all nations repI resented here are to make the aehiere- ! inent of universal disarmament their i common aim. (c) to ensure continuity of advance j towards our ultimate goal, without de- \ tra-iting in any way from the fullest I measure of success of our immediate j effort, hv planning the holding of similar conferences at reasonably short ini tervals of time. J Fear and Suspicion. i The making of such an international treaty in reality involves the whole issue of peace or war. The anxiety of nations to be secure from attack and, if conflict took place, to be secure in war, has been in the past an avowed reason for the maintenance of huge armaments. Yet the existence of armaments has been itself a grimly fertile source of the mutual fears and suspicions wliich poisoned international life, paralysed the will to peace, ann flung the nations time and again into feverish competition in armament 1 ;. Modern history provides incontestable and overwhelming proof of the fallacy of the idea that the safety of a nation j is in proportion to its strength in ar- j riaments. Fear and suspicion, when I they are active psychological factors in I international life, exercise a powerful J end pernicious influence. Yet it is diffi- j cult to conceive of a sharper spur to i those emotions than the maintenance jmd growth of colossal national armaments. It is unnecessary for me to remind the Conference of the staggering cost —in all its varied forms —which the World War entailed. It is equally unnecessary for me to attempt to describe, to you the horrifying cataclysm that the "next war'' would involve. A Vicious Circle. Our task at this Conference callimperatively for clear, .definite, ana constructive action. AVe have to breaK the vicious circle in which the nations of the world are again in danger of being caught. A sense of insecurity leads to an increase of armaments; an increase in armaments further aggravates the sense of insecurity; and, ira-! less the circle can be "broken, the pro- J cess goes inevitably forward. The overburdened nations can then find no | release from their mutual distrust ex- j cept in open conflict. These facts were clearly and generally recognised at the end cf the World War. Disarmament was given an essential place in the \ Covenant of the League. The members of.the League, under the terms of Article 8 of the Covenant, recognised that the maintenance of peace required the reduction of national armaments to the lowest point consistent alike with their national safety and with the enforcement by common action of their international obligations. The obligation implicit in Article 8 continues to rest upon all the members of the League of Nations, and every effort should be made by them at this Conference to discharge it.