DISARMAMENT

Evening Star, Issue 21284, 13 December 1932, Page 7

DISARMAMENT

THE GENEVA CONFERENCE

PLAIN SPEAKING AT FINAL SESSION

Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright

GENEVA, December 12

Mr Ramsay MacDonald, Mr Norman Davis, and Sir John Simon are generally credited with what success attended the end of the Disarmament Conference, ft is no secret that there was some plain speaking at the final sessions, and that the negotiations were in danger of breaking down.

German circles at Geneva attribute the final acceptance of the compromise to the fact that Germany has a military Chancellor, who knows how far to commit his countrymen and safeguard them against Franco’s demands. Though the Sino-Jnpanese dispute will keep Sir John Simon at Geneva for the lest of the week the other delegates are delighted to be relieved from attendance at the disarmament proceedings until January.

THE FIVE-POWER DECLARATION

GERMANY SCEPTICAL

LONDON, December 12

The Geneva representative of the British United Press says: “The German delegation is sceptical of the value of the five-Power declaration on disarmament, and before he went to Berlin Baron Von Neurath indicated that if the methods to be suggested for the practical realisation of equality rights prove to be unsatisfactory Germany will again withdraw from the Disarmament Conference. The big five have tentatively agreed to meet at London in the middle of December to discuss procedure, but Mr Arthur Henderson will also be present in order to show that the discussion is not an attempt to supplant the conference itself. Ihere is a possibility that Japan and Russia, at a later stage, will be invited to participate in similar discussions. Mr MacDonald hopes that the present declaration will be interpreted in the United States as definite proof that Europe is making serious efforts to set her house in order, but the United States delegates are understood to be disappointed that time did not permit a thorough exploration of the possibility of a preliminary disarmament convention. They hope an attempt to frame a convention will be made early in the new year.”