GERMANY'S ARMAMENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19509, 13 December 1926, Page 10

GERMANY'S ARMAMENT.

It is apparent that finality is being approached on the difficult but necessary question as to whether Germany has fulfilled her obligations to disarm according to the terms of the peace treaty. Its difficulty has been unexpectedly great, owing to Germany's obvious reluctance hitherto to facilitate investigations. The news published to-day shows clearly that some of her protestations of having fully complied with the terms are not substantiated by facts' within the knowledge of the Ambassadors' Conference. There has been on her eastern front, at Konigsberg, § direct defiance of those stipulations. Maintenance only of the fortress there was allowed in them; instead, formidable works of an ultra-modern type have been constructed. Proof of this, together with other evidence of military intent gathered by the technical experts and the Inter-Allied Commission of Control, will be furnished to the Locarno Powers now represented at Geneva. Germany's sincerity will thus be put to an acid test. If she proceeds, at once, either to absolutely satisfactory explanation of every item in the charges levelled against her or to complete compliance with the treaty's terms, there will be a firm basis for further negotiations, with her as a party, designed to achieve peace in Europe. It is suggested on high authority that there will be satisfactory agreement in Geneva. But it cannot .come without disposal of the doubts, now given very precise expression, of Germany's good faith. The discussions in prospect give promise of clearing the air, an essential prelude to progress in further negotiations, whatever be the direction they are to take.