HERRIOT’S PLAN

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXII, Issue 272, 1 November 1932, Page 8

HERRIOT’S PLAN

EUROPEAN DISARMAMENT EFFECT ON GERMANY. GENEVA DISAPPOINTED. London, Oct. 31. The "Manchester Guardian’s" Berlin correspondent says that M. Harriot’s disarmament plan would make Germany the greatest military power in Europe. The proposed militia would only be raised by conscription. The abolition of the Reichswehr would not be real, for it would be incorporated in the militia, thus re-establishing the old military caste in a new form. To anyone acquainted with the frightful explosive antagonisms in Europe to-day, the idea of M. Herriot’s international force seems fantastic. Germany, with a militia of which the “abolished” Reichswehr would be the nucleus, would be relatively as formidable as in 1914 and able to defy the world’s peace organisations.

The "Guardian’s” Geneva corrcspendent says that the plan intensely disappointed League circles, for it is feared that it means the rearmament of Germany. The restoration of conscription, even in a limited form, would be a disaster to Germany and the world.

THE BRITISH STANDPOINT. OBLIGATIONS INTENSIFIED. Landon,'Oct. 31. The "Daily Telegraph’s” diplomatic correspondent says that M. Herriot’s scheme is highly complicated from the British standpoint. The most serious matter is that the French plan would render more rigid Britain’s obligations under Article XVL Of the League Covenant and the Locarno Pact. The basic idea of the French plan is to reduce all continental armies to the status of militias for purely defensive purposes, with a small body of trained soldiers to form part of a collective force for the repression of aggression. M. HERRIOT’S HOPE. A RALLYING POINT. Farit, Oct. 31. M. Herriot, speaking at Poitiers en route to Spain, said that he believed there was good ground for hope that the new French disannainent plan would prove a rallying point for all courageous minds.