HOPES OF DISARMAMENT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21247, 29 July 1932, Page 8

HOPES OF DISARMAMENT

As chairman of the Disarmament. Conference, Mr. Henderson naturally hopes to see it succeed. It may even be said that he realises a large measure of responsibility for its work and would deem failure a reflection on his personal ability to guide its deliberations. No one will be disposed to question his statement of the difficulty of harmonising the views of sixty-four nations, most of them individually vexed by armament problems in some respects unlike those of all the rest. The truth of this is borne out by the elaborate table of national opinions, collated by the conference secretariat, on the various points raised by the League's preparatory commission. But this difficulty is not wholly insurmountable. A perusal of the table reveals that on certain points, those dealing with restriction of peculiarly barbarous methods of warfare and even with the tonnage of warships and calibre of naval guns, there is a fairly close approximation of ideas. What can reasonably be gathered from the discussions so far, how- t ever, is that no plan of general acceptance covering all forms of armaments is in sight, and Mr. Henderson himself would be sorely perplexed if asked to give a formula applicable in practice to a majority of the Powers represented. On the other hand, his four reasons for optimism—worldwide desire for disarmament, the Hoover proposals, the Simon plan of abolishing aggressive weapons, and the understanding registered in the Versailles Treaty have considerable force. They all add to the obligation to get the utmost measure of reduction that is practicable. He does not mention a reason that ought to be given weight when the chances of success and failure are put in the balance; this is the new entente in Europe, created by the Anglo-French invitation resulting from the Lausanne Conference. The number of adhering Powers steadily increases; Spain is to-day reported as accepting, and the leading Powers are almost all in now. They are pledged, following the settlement of the reparations question and the moratorium on European war debts, to work together at Geneva for disarmament as an essential factor of peace and economic revival. It is therefore to be expected that the resumption of the conference will see a vigorous renewal of the effort to reach agreement in detail. This may fall short of the hopes entertained when the conference was arranged, but at least it should be sufficient to justify its holding.