SECURITY PROJECT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19753, 28 September 1927, Page 11

SECURITY PROJECT.

ADOPTION BY LEAGUE. BRITAIN AND MINOR POWERS. A. and N.Z.-Sun. GENEVA, Sept. 26. In the Assembly of the League of Nations there was sustained acclamation at the unanimous passing of the resolution of the Third Committee, dealing with the appointment oi a committee to consider security, and also with sanctions. The outstanding speech was made by Dr. F. Nansen (Norway), who urged Britain to adopt the proposal. He said he admitted the force of Sir Austen Chamberlain's speech on the position of the Empire. If the small States seemed to underestimate the powerful support given by Britain to the Leagre it was, said Dr. Nansen, because they had taken certain things as being too obvious to need restatement. They realised that Britain's hesitation to increase her commitments was due to her anxiety not to weaken ■her power to honour her existing engagements by contracting new ones. They also recognised Britain's special position in relation to the units of her Empire. Likewise any new commitments would be more onerous in the case of Britain, because she had the largest fleet. Consequently they had drafted a formula which recognised the foregoing considerations, and which would diminish and not increase the responsibilities of Britain under the Protocol.

The resolution adopted by the Third Committee was to the following effect:— (1) The creation, side by side with the Preparatory Disarmament Commission, of another committee, the mission of which will be to consider measures calculated to afford to all States guarantees of arbitration and security and, if necessary, to fix the level of armaments at the lowest figures. (2) An invitation to the "Council to request the various States to supply information as to what measures they would be prepared to take, and 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 breaking out in any given region.