The New Zealand Times. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 27, 1926. DISARMAMENT

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12355, 27 January 1926, Page 6

The New Zealand Times. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 27, 1926. DISARMAMENT

llie German Government has accepted the League of Nations’ invitation to Germany to take part in a preliminary disarmament conference. It is the most important of the many important decisions made since the war. All these were steps towards the . high level where the permanent peace of the world is possible. The German decision means that Europe has, with one except tion, reached that high, much-desired level. Russia is the exception. To wait for .Russia is to postpone indefinitely the great settlement which has become immediately possible. When the settlement is actually made, Russia will have no cause to fear hostile interference from abroad, and no reason to think there is danger of being drawn into international quarrels as in the old way. Russia will, as soon as she is stabilised, be anxious only to take a share in the stability of the world. The German decision is a recognition of the greatest issue before the world, which has experienced the strangling effect of great armaments, .which shut up too much of the manhood and many of the nations in employment ruinously unprofitable, and drifting fast towards great wars. . There are many points of uneasiness—the Dawes plan, the military occupation of German territory, the Danzig corridor, and the various agreements of the Locarno Pact are the most obvious. The German decision means the completion of a firm European agreement that none of these uneasinesses shall be allowed to badly affect the prospects of permanent peace, which will set free the manhood and money of the world for profitable, progressive, friendlyAumart relations. The world has been grumbling about many things since the signing of'the great Peace Treaty. The general idea was of the futility of too much negotiation. But this decision to confer about disarmament is a proof that all this multitudinous negotiation has been conducted on reasonable lines, with resolute determination' to eliminate all bickerings of national jealousies, and'quiet facing of all difficulties strictly on Their merits. It is a new diplomacy, and it stands happily crowned by this German decision which has brought disarmament nearer than it has been for’ all the centuries of wars and readiness for wars. Disarmament is, of course, a difficult and complicated matter. But since the war the world has found ways of dealing with difficulties and complications. _ On this momentous occasion it will not fail. The benefits of disarmament are too obvious, and the disasters of war are too great and too recent. The Disarmament Conference will discuss preliminaries first, and with the stage thus set, final agreement will not fail for lack of a clear atmosphere.