POWERS' LAND FORCES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20243, 1 May 1929, Page 13

POWERS' LAND FORCES.

DISCUSSION AT GENEVA.

BRITAIN'S .BIG REDUCTIONS.

CONSCRIPTION ISSUE SHELVED.

Australian Press Association—United Service British Wireless. GENEVA, April 29.

The Chinese delegates to the conference of the Preparatory Commission on Disarmament to-day consented to the question of the abolition of conscription being referred to the Disarmament Conference proper. This they did because the other delegates consider it to be outside the scope of the Commission. However the Chinese reserved the right to their country to adopt conscription if necessary. Count Bernstorff (Germany) said they were not asking the Powers already disarmed to disarm. I He hoped that the future conference would not degenerate into a conference for mutual protection against disarmament. (Laughter.) Lord Cushendun _(Britain) said it was quito true, as a French delegate bad said, that the question of the distinction between limitation and reduction had already been discussed and settled. Nevertheless it was very important to bear in mind the distinction between the two, because if reduction werp to be substituted for limitation in that convention they might very well be going beyond the obligations of Article 8 of the covenant of the League of Nations. The article in question laid down that there should bo a reduction to a level compatible with national safety. One could not tell at present what nations, if any, had already reduced to that level. Britain had carried out consistently for many years a continuous reduction of her land armaments. At the end of the war she had a very large military force produced by compulsory service which was an exceptional system for her. Immediately the war was over Britain had returned to the voluntary service, but even on that small level which, compared with the conscriptionist nations, was very small, the army of Britain had been continually reduced.

In proof of that Lord Cushendun said that compared with the days before the war the army of Britain had been reduced to nine cavalry regiments, 21 infantry battalions and 61 artillery batteries. In the last five years she had progressively reduced her military budget. In 1925, irrespective of pensions, the British military budget was £36,500,000; in 1926, £34,500,000; in 1927, £33,333,000; in 1928, £52,750,000; and in the present year, £32,233,000. Therefore, in the last five years Britain had been continually and progressively reducing her military budget. At the same time she had carried out a progressive diminution cf her land forces. Consequently it was quite possible—though he did not assert that it would be so—that when the matter cams to be decided by the Disarmament Conference it might appear that Britain had already leduced her land forces to the level required by the covenant.