DRAMATIC BID

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 70, 15 December 1933, Page 11

DRAMATIC BID

Limitation of Arms MOVE BY BRITAIN Simon to Visit European Capitals FRANCO-GERMAN RIFT Effort for Rapprochement By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. (Received December 14, 8.30 p.m. London, December 14. Tlie “News Chronicle” states that Cabinet has approved of the Foreign Secretary, Sir John Simon, touring the Continental capitals during tlie Christmas recess as part of the Goternment’s dramatic bid to secure a disarmament agreement. His itmeiary will include Paris, E 0,1,e - “ Berlin, where he will see Herr Hitlei and Baron von Neuratli. “Cabinet hopes that Sir John Simon will be .-able to effect a Franco-Geiman rapprochement, at the same time learning more precise details of Signor Mussolini’s plans for the reform ofthv League of Nations,” adds the NewsChronicle.” ' . . Sir John Simon starts his tour on December 21, going direct to Italy and afterward to Paris. INTERNATIONAL POLICE House of Commons Motion (Received December 14, 7 p.m.) , London, December 14. In the House of Commons, Mr. G. Le M. Mander (L.) moved in favour of the formation of an international police force controlled by the League of Nations. Brigadier-General E. L. Spears (C.) seconded the motion. He expressed the opinion that this was' the only way of achieving security and disarmament. Major 0/ R- Attlee (Lab.), voicing Labour’s support of the proposal, suggested that the example of the Empire policed by an Imperial force might be followed by the whole world. The Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Captain Anthony Eden, replying, said the day might come when such a force would become an actuality, but that was unlikely in the near future. The motion was premature and Impracticable, and would ouly complicate the Government’s task in trying to obtain a world agreement to reduce arms. Mr. Mander withdrew the motion GERMAN MAN-POWER French General’s Estimate (Received December 14, 7 p.m.) Paris, December 13. General Debeney, a member of the Supreme Council of War, estimates that Germany’s available force of men for military training at about 2,700,000, comprised as follows: — Regular Army 140,000 Time-expired men 60,000 Militarised police 157,000 Hitler’s new picked troops 100,000 Nazi Storm Troops .... 1,000,000 War soldiers under forty 1,300,000 General Debeney asserts that the Reich has more than double .the number of motor-cars authorised under the Versailles Treaty. He.estimates Germany’s capacity for producing aeroplanes at the rate of 2500 a month, and infers from recent importations of nickel, tungsten, cotton linters and other raw materials of munitions, that industrial mobilisation has begun. FAR EAST -FRONTIER Russia’s Precautions (Received December 14, 7 p.m.) Moscow, December 13. M. Stalin has issued a decree increasing by 50 per cent, the pay of Russian soldiers in the far eastern areas and Siberia. The decree also increases the wages of Workmen- and specialists in the coal industry by 30 per cent., and in other industries by 20 per cent. He is also exempting farmers from delivering quotas of grain to the Government and reducing the compulsory deliveries of meat, potatoes, butter, and milk. The “Daily Express” says M. Stalin’s aim is to build up a larger, well-fed population just Inside Russia’s far eastern frontiers, where now the best troops are being sent.