DISARMAMENT ISSUES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19620, 26 April 1927, Page 13

DISARMAMENT ISSUES.

differences at geneva. LITTLE PROGRESS MADE. (Received April 25, 5.5 p.m.) A. and N.Z. GENEVA. April 21. A difference of opinion aro.se at yesterday's sitting of the Preparatory Commission on Disarmament about the eventual application of the convention and the exchange of information relating to the armaments of the various nations. Unanimity on these points could not be reached. The French proposal, dealing with ratification, was finally adopted, with a reservation by Count Bernstorfl (Germany). This was to the effect that the convention at present does not show whether it will be the first step toward the genuine, general disarmament envisaged by the Treaty of Versailles. Count Bernstorfl especially opposed the French provision that the convention should not affect previous treaties relating to military and naval air forces. This he regarded as being designed to cover French interests. Belgium, Czecho-Slovakia, Poland, Roumania, and all the neighbours of Russia, insisted that the convention should not be operative in respect to them until Russia has signed it. „ Argentina advanced the same plea in respect to South America. NAVAL ARMS REDUCTION. WHAT BRITAIN HAS IN VIEW. (Received April 25. 5.5 p.m.) A. and N.Z. LONDON, April 24. Reynolds' News says the First Lord of the Admiralty, Mr. W. C. Bridgeman, will announce at the Naval Arms Limitation Conference, to be held at Geneva in June, that Britain is willing to renew the Washington Convention for five years from the expiry of 1931. Mr. Bridgeman will also propose a further reduction in the size of cruisers, possibly to 6000 tons. GERMAN ARGUMENTS. THE RIGHT TO REARM. LEAGUE LIABLE TO FOUNDER. (Received April 25, 5.30 p.m.) A. and N.Z. LONDON, April 25. A message from Geneva ssays tne .Preparatory Commission on Disarmament is speeding up to the first reading of the draft convention in the hope that the second reading a few months hence may bring a solution of the thorny problems upon which no agreement has so far been reached. Japan made important concessions at the week-end, withdrawing her previous reservations concerning naval personnel and naval and air armaments. In tho course of a discussion on the preamble to the convention Count Bernstorff (Germany) strongly pleaded that it should be international and acceptable both to the United States and Russia, not merely a League of Nations convention. Tho Geneva correspondent of the Morning Post says# the greatest significance attaches to the line taken throughout! by the German delegation. They have committed themselves without qualification to securing a recognition of the Treaty of Versailles as a bilaterial document'. Unless real disarmament is commenced immediately Germany intends to try to rid herself of the clauses in the. treaty which forbid her to rearm. Either the Treaty of Versailles or the future of the League is at issue. Disarmament is the rock on which the League is liable to founder unless the treaty is sacrified, or France agrees to- disarm.