Disarmament

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21123, 26 March 1934, Page 10

Disarmament

The French reply to the British \ memorandum on disarmament, sum- j marised in the cable news this morn- j ing, shows clearly that the disarmament negotiations have made little or no progress in the last month; and in the circumstances it is easy to believe the report that the meeting of the bureau of the Disarmament Conference fixed for April 10 will be postponed. The conferer.ee ! is so nearly dead that to risk a j meeting without any reasonable j prospect of making progress might j mean the end. The French note! finds two main faults in the revised j British proposals. Tire first is the! inadequacy of the provisions for I dealing with a power which can ', be shown to have violated the terms ; of the proposed convention. The I British memorandum proposes no-; tiling more effective than an inter-! national conference to consider| what sanctions, if any, shall be ap- j plied. It is easy to see the force : of the French contention that this ; weakness renders the whole conven- : tion of little value. It is now nam- ■ fully apparent that the armament clauses of the peace treaties have j been violated, not merely by Ger-j many, but also by her allies in the; Great War. It is therefore reason-: abiic to argue that the fir>t essential uuate provision for enforcing it. The ; French; Government's second objee- ; tion to the British proposals is that! they would allow Germany some j measure of rearmriinent; and it is: an objection which is less easy to ; sustain. The French Government ' "• tempiatcd a supervised reduction " of armaments . . . to a level " allowing the realisation of equality " of rights." If there was any possi- ; bility of an immediate and sub- i stantial reduction in armaments, it i would be reasonable and expedient ■ French pr.-pus;,; »\ odd postpone i:i-. definitely the practical realisation of equality of lights. A iortmg'ui. ago >.

the Belgian Prime Minister said frankly that, as matters stood, there could be no progress in the disarmament negotiations unless Germany was allowed some increase in her armaments. That is the view of the ; British and Italian Governments J also; and it is the common-sense : view.