Evening Post. TUESDAY, APRIL 12, 1927. A GLOOMY REPORT

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 86, 12 April 1927, Page 8

Evening Post. TUESDAY, APRIL 12, 1927. A GLOOMY REPORT

A step towards the solution of the most conspicuously urgent of the world's, great problems is reported to-day in the presentation by the five foreign Powers principally concerned of identical Notes to the two Chinese Governments regarding the Nanking outrages. But- the perspective of history will probably show that Lord Cecil'was right when, in submitting a draft Convention to the Disarmaments Preparatory Commission at Geneva three weeks ago, he by implication claimed priority for a far less spectacular issue.

The development in modern armaments since the War was such, said Lord Cecil, that the greatest problem facing the 'world is whether we can take advantage of the present lull to build up safeguards that will prevent another war which might end our civilisation. The Disarmament Commission must demonstrate that the reduction and limitation of armaments is a practical possibility. '

Speaking while the ratification of the Locarno Treaty was .still in doubt, Lord Grey had said "the final test of the League would be its ability to secure a reduction of armaments," and that from this point of view it was; "intensely desirable that after Germany has come into the League of _ Nations Russia also shall come in." Germany'has since come in, but Russia remains as far away as ever. It was exactly a year ago that Russia rejected with contumely the invitation to take part in the Disarmament Conference. In his Note of the 12th April last M. Tchitcherin declared that the Soviet Government was convinced :

of the lack of seriousness and sincerity in tho initiative taken by the League and tho League's incapacity to carry through so important a task as the convocation of a universal (Disarmament Conference. ;

It is quite certain that, while Russia stands out, no scheme of universal disarmament or even of the drastic limitation of armaments can possibly be carried out either by the League or by any other, body. The insolent,, aggressive, blood-stained, and tyrannical Power which by an amazing paradox commands the devoted admiration of nearly half, of our pacifists and probably of more than half of our most fervent, democrats, is at once obstructing the hopes of peace which the world has centred in Geneva and stimulating the fears of war with which it contemplates the doings in v Hankow and Shanghai. But for the present the hopes are vaguer and more remote than the fears, and the gloomy report from Geneva yesterday cannot be ascribed to the severe limitation with which the Western nations will have to be content as long as the greatest of European 'nations, which is also a great Asiaiic nation, remains fully armed and busily plotting for the destruction of civilisation by another World War. The gloom which pervaded the meeting of the Preparatory Disarmament Commission dn Friday was inspired by the difficulties, not of the final stages in the process' but of the very first. The impasse with which the Commission is threatened arises from the inherent difficulties of its task, which the presence of Russian delegates could only have aggravated.

Yesterday's report disclosed at once the impatience of French idealism with the slow progress that the Preparatory Commission is making and the complication of the issue by the Franco-German rivalry which the Treaty of: Locarno sought to check, but is of: course powerless to abolish.

M.f'do Brouckero said that whereas disarmament was the original aim, this ha<J /boen modified, firstly to a reduo-' tion.' of armaments, then to limitation, and finally-it seemed, to have reached tho stage when oven tho word limitation was too strong. Now it had come to a question of expenditure;

M. de Brouckere's reference to disarmament as the original aim which has Since been abandoned must be dismissed as the idlest of rhetoric. Disarmament is still the aim just as much as it ever was, but even at the outset fiobody supposed that disarmament could be established in a single. stheme by a single stroke of the pen. Though the years of disappointment which have followed the Armistice and the Peace Treaty have revealed- the flimsiness of many of the hopes on which they were based, this absurdity at any rate was not one of them. The men who fran> ed the Covenant of the may have been visionaries, but they certainly, had far too much commonsense to countenance such a delusion. Article VIII. of the Covenant sets out the methods by which they hoped the League ; would put; their ideals into practice:—

The members of tlio League recognise that tho maintenance of peace requires the reduction of national armaments 1 to^ the lowest point consistent ■with national safety and tho enforcement by common, action of international Tho Council, taking account of tlio geographical situation and circumstances of each State, shall formulate plans for such reduction for tho consideration'and action of tho several Governments. Such plans sliall bo subject to reconsideration and revision at least every ten years. After these plans shall have boon, adopted by the several Governments, the limits of armaments therein fixed shall not be exceeded without tho concurronco of tho Council.

The terms of this article prick the

bubble o£ M. de Brouckere*s rhetoric in three places. They show that "original aim," in so far as the League of Nations was to realise it, was not complete disarmament, and that what ho regards as successive steps in the downward path— reduction and limitation of armaments —are the very methods originally provided for. If it is the limitation of unreduced armaments to which M. de Brouckere refers, we do not know to whose proposals he refers, or have we the means of checking his suggestion that a still lower depth may how have been reached in the attempt to make not the size but the cost of armament's the test. After Lord Cecil had endeavoured to dispel the pessimism thus created, Count Bernstorff made matters worse by arguing that France should recognise her obligations under Article V. of the Treaty, and that the League should discharge its mandates under Article VIII. of the covenant. The disarmament of Germany is expressly declared by the Treaty to be the first instalment of a general scheme, and it is as natural that Germany should object to the delay as that France should object to being reminded of it by a German; "In an effort to smooth matters," Mr. Gibson is said to have told the disputants "that die essential part of the Commission's work had only just begun," but there was not much comfort in the reminder.