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Hokitika Guardian, 10 July 1934, Page 4

It has become unmistakably apparent during the last two years that the nations of the. worlct are not now ready to bind themselves uniformly to the provisions of one all-embracing Charter

of reduced armaments. The world is not one political unit—nor even, as last year’s Economic Conference showed one economic unit. The post-war treaties that have in fact done something for peace and prosperity—the Washington aim London Naval Agreements, Locarno, Lausanne, and Ottawa —have been partial and regional. The League of Nations itself has never attained universality; and it is better to face the fact that there is no prospect now that sixty nations will accept the ninety-six detailed articles of the British Draft Convention. The universal method has failed. The simpler, more practical and more British way has not really been tried. To the proposal .of the International Lahbur Office that they should support a convention for a universal forty-hour week the British Government have very sensibly replied -that limitation of hours can only he dealt with industry by industry. Let them try the same method in disarmament. A beginning might be made in Europe by a treaty among the Continental nations and Great Britain that they would not bombard each other's territory from the air. The question of the actual abolition of bombing aeroplanes could for the moment be left in abeyance; but something at least would have / been done to tranquilise exaggerated fears of the present time and to cheek the actual increase of bombing machines which is everywhere threatened. And there are other points about which there is fundamental agreement between all the leading countries. A short simple convention might arrest competitive building in the large ,tggressive weapons of land warfare, just as twelve years ago it prevented the futi'e spending of millions of pounds in 45,010 ton battleships. The establishment of m international supervisory commission to inspect national armaments would be .an important step

toward creating a common sense of responsibility. On these humble beginnings it should still most certainly be possible to build gradually a general system of regulated and reduced armaments.