EUROPE UNDER ARMS

Evening Star, Issue 19779, 1 February 1928, Page 8

EUROPE UNDER ARMS

SIGNOR NITTI ON PERILS OF WAR

“ Never has there been arming of so mad a character as since the existence of the League of Nations,” _ declared Signor Nitti, an ex-Prime Minister of Italy, at a conference in London, convened by the no-morc-war movement.

Tile danger of war, he said, was greater even than in 1913, on the eve of the European War. Even after the disarmament of Germany, Austria, Hungary, and Bulgaria, Europe, taken as a whole, now had almost 1,000,000 more men under arms than before the war.

Europe was also spending for military purposes almost exactly the same sum in gold values as in 1913. Signor Nitti went on;

The material conditions of warbig armies and big armaments —exist more than ever. But war and peace are, above all, conditions of mind. War is produced by a spirit of conquest, by distrust, and the spirit of revenge. Is there a war spirit among the people of Europe? 1 do not believe it. NO ITALIAN HATBED.

It is not true that the French and German people hate each other. The Italian people have no aversion to others. It is very difficult to find in England any honest man who has hate for another people. But there are in each country virulent minorities who even to-day speak the language of drunken Dervishes. The people are dragged into wars which they do not dcsiro. Europe, to save herself,'must address herself to large economic unions and to permanent • agreements, and to-morrow, if it is possible, to big political unions.