LEAGUE ASSEMBLY

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, 27 September 1927, Page 5

LEAGUE ASSEMBLY

SECURITY AND DISARMAMENT

COMMISSION’S RESOLUTION ADOPTED. DR. NANSEN’S SPEECH. [By Cable —Press Assn. — Copyright.! (Received 27, 11.45 a.m.) Geneva, Sept. 20. Sustained acclamation marked the Assembly’s unanimous passage of the third Commission’s resolution. The outstanding speech was Dr Nansen’s, urging Britain’s adoption. He admitted the force of Sir Austen Chamberlain's speech, but explained that if the small states seemed to un-der-estimate Britain 's great support at the League it was because they had

taken certain things as too obvious to need restatement. They realised that Britain's hesitation to increase her commitments was due to anxiety not to weaken her power to honour existing engage-

meats by contracting new ones. liny also recognised Britain’s special position in relation to units of the Empire, and also that any new commitments would bo more onerous in her case because she had the largest fleet. Consequently, he had drafted a formula recognising the foregoing considerations and diminishing net increasing, Britain’s responsibilities under the protocol.

The resoluton recommended the acceptance of a security and disarmament proposition combining the Dutch, German and French proposals —Firstly, the creation side by side with the preparatory Disarmament Commission of another committee, whose mission is to consider measures calculated to afford all States guarantees of arbitration and security necessary to flx the level of armaments at the lowest figures; secondly, inviting the Council to request States to supply information as to what measures they would be prepared to take what forces, naval, military and aerial, they would'be prepared to employ in order to support the decisions of the Council in the event of a conflict ’creaking out in a given region.