WORLD PEACE

Evening Star, Issue 21634, 1 February 1934, Page 12

WORLD PEACE

BRITAIN'S DISARMAMENT PROPOSALS TEST OF HEMORANDini (British Official Wireless.) Press Association —By Telegraph—Copyright. RUGBY, January 31. (Received February 1, at noon.) The memorandum in which the attitude of the British Government on the Xiresent disarmament situation is defined was published to-night in the form of a White Paper. It represents a further positive contribution to promoting reconciliation of views, and indicates the lines of compromise which the Government believes should be generally acceptable. The memorandum states that it is recognised that a resumption of negotiations at Geneva without new directive suggestions would lead to further disappointment and that an agreement is most likely to be reached on a broad basis which combines regulation of armaments with assurances in the political field. Discussion since last March, however,- has shown that the British draft convention, the underlying conceptions of which remain the standpoint of the British Government, requires adjustment in order to attain an agreement. Therefore the Government will still work for an agreement, even though having regard to the principle of equality of rights the agreement is found to involve, alongside of disarmament in some quarters, some measure of rearmament in others. “ His Majesty’s Government has more than once publicly stated that an international agreement based on the admitted principle of equality of rights in the regime of security necessarily involves that, within the stages provided for by such agreement, a situation must be reached in which the arms of one kind permitted to one State cannot continue to be denied to another. The Government is convinced that the best prospect for the future peace of the world would be afforded by an agreement which recognises and provides for this parity of treatment, while it abolishes or reduces to the lowest possible level all arms of a specially offensive character and provides by the mostappropriate means available for a greater sense of security. “ So far as Europe is concerned reconciliation of the points of view of France and Germany is an essential condition of a general agreement. If a way is not found to accommodate their respective points of view this greater sense of security will not be promoted, and without it substantial disarmament is impossible. On the other hand, if an agreement is reached, and even if the agreement at present attainable falls short of the highest hopes, the gain of reaching and observing such an agreement will be immeasurable; and the fact that it has been reached and observed will form a firm foundation on which a further agreement of a more comprehensive character may be based in future.” The way in which the Government believes that an agreement could be reached is set out in the second part of the memorandum. Adequate provision must be made under three heads—security, equality of rights, and disarmament. Firstly, the Government regards the present form of security provisions contained in the first four articles of the British Draft Convention as of very great importance, but it suggests the addition of three further articles, one of which will be the present article 89 of the Draft Convention declaring that loyal execution of the convention is a matter of common interest to the signatories; the second an article providing for immediate consultation in the event of the Permanent Disarmament Commission reporting failure by one of the parties to execute loyally the convention; and the third defining the object of such consultation, which is the exchange of views as to the steps to bo taken to restore the situation. These provisions would emphasise the inescapable duty of the signatories of the convention to prevent or remedy any violation of it, and when taken together with the German Chancellor’s proposal for the conclusion of pacts of nonaggression would present the sum total of security worthy of general acceptance.

Secondly, equality of rights. His Majesty’s Government declares that the practical application of the principle of equality of rights is no less essential in an agreement than that of the principle of security. Thirdly, disarmament. Attention is drawn to voluntary renunciation by the German Chancellor in the course of a recent conversation of offensive weapons, although heavily-armed States might not be willing to abandon their existing armaments. It therefore follows that a positive contribution to disarmament by the heavily-hrmed Powers would help to bring the scale down all round, and should logically reduce the demands which Germany might otherwise be disposed to put forward. His Majesty’s Government, consequently, has put forward the following proposals on the assumption that an agreement should last ten years:— Effectiveness: The draft convention’s suggestion was 200,000 men, with eight months’ service as the average daily number of effectives stationed in the home country for France, Germany, Italy, and Poland. Germany claims 000,000, with twelve months’ service. His Majesty’s Government considers that it is the principle of parity rather than the actual figures which is important, and thinks it should not be too difficult for these States to find accommodation between 200,000, which it believes is preferred by a majority of the Powers concerned, and 300,000, It

will be prepared also to acquiesce in a longer period of service if such is the general desire. The process of standardisation at an agreed figure should be completed in four years. Military training of an outsido army of men of military ago should be prohibited and the prohibition checked by permanent and automatic supervision. LAND WAR MATERIAL, Attention is called to the fact that under the draft convention the restrictions on Germany in the matter of antiaircraft guns would disappear, but it is submitted that the maximum calibre of guns in permanent frontier . and fortress defensive systems should be fixed by international agreement. Tanks. —It is proposed that those over 30 tons be destroyed by the end of the first year, those over 20 tons by the end of the third year, and those over 16 tons by the end of the fifth year. Further international examination, as contemplated in article 21 of the draft convention, should be undertaken and completed by the end of the third year. The Government would agree to a new German short-service army being equipped with tanks up to, say, six tons, which Germany maintains are necessary for defensive purposes. Mobile Land Guns. —The Government would still prefer to adhere to the maximum limit of 115 m.m. as provided for in the draft convention (Article 19), hut is prepared in. order to secure a prompt general agreement, to concur in the new -German shortservice army being equipped with 155 m.m. guns, which Germany maintains are necessary for its defensive armament. Guns over 350 m.m. to be destroyed by the end of the first year, over 220 m.m. <by the end of the fourth year, and over 155 m.m. by the end of the seventh year. The Government is prepared to agree to corresponding arrangements for Austria, Hungary, and Bulgaria in respect to mobile artillery and tanks. AIRCRAFT. The Government adheres to the maximum limit of three tons for military aircraft, laid down in the draft convention (Article 37), and to other provisions contained in Articles 34 to 41. This involves no further construction of military aircraft apart from flying boats and troop-carriers above three tons unladen weight, and the destruction of half the number of the existing military aircraft above three .tone by June, 1936, and the other half by the end of the convention. 'Article 35 requires that the Permanent Disarmament Commission shall immediately devote itself to the working out of the best possible schemes for providing for the complete abolition of military and naval aircraft, which must be dependent on the effective supervision of civil aviation to prevent its misuse for military purposes. If at the end of two years the commission has not decided on abolition, all countries should he entitled to possess military aircraft, increasing or reducing them by stages in the following eight years, so ,as to attain eventually the figures to be agreed upon. Germany would acquire parity with the principal air Powers by these stages. NAVAL ARMAMENTS. The Government stands by the naval chapter of the convention, but is prepared to make proposals for a simpler arrangement if thought necessary in view of the near approach of the 1935 naval conference. SUPERVISION. Finally, in regard to supervision, the Government will, if an agreement is reached on all other issues, agree to the application of a system of permanent automatic supervision to come into force with the obligations of the convention. GERMANY’S POSITION. In the cncluding paragraph emphasis is laid on the view of the Government that the return of Germany to Geneva and the League of Nations should be an essential condition of the agreement. CONSIDERATION BY GERMANY RUGBY, January 31, (Received February 1, at noon.) In his Reichstag speech yesterday the German Chancellor, expressing appreciation of the efforts of the British Government to improve international relations, stated that the British memorandum was already receiving earnest consideration.