THE LEAGUE AND DISARMAMENT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19906, 28 September 1926, Page 8

THE LEAGUE AND DISARMAMENT.

Beyond being expressive of the desire of the Assembly of the League of Nations to see the projected conference respecting disarmament materialise without undue delay, the discussion on disarmament at Geneva last week possessed no particular significance. Inasmuch as disarmament represents on© of the principal means whereby the League hopes to accomplish its objects, those whose faith is centred in the organisation may well feel some disappointment at the tardiness of its progress towards definite achievement in the desired direction. As one writer has well put it: “The covenant of the League was only intended to work in a world that had been disarmed. It was never imagined by those who drew it up that it could prevent another world-war if international society were distracted by the same kind of competitive preparation for war which did so much to cause the cataclysm of 1914. On the contrary, its authors held that a reduction and limitation of armaments would not only in itself remove perhaps the

most fruitful of all causes of fear, of distrust, and of suspicion between peoples, but that it would also affect, and affect profoundly, the psychology of the vast mass of all the nations who are members of the League.” It may be suggested that if the nations were more in earnest in subscribing to the principles upon which the League was founded they would not find it so difficult to argue among themselves upon a disarmament policy. Within the League itself there are nations, no doubt, which present a stumbling-block in one way or another. Again, there are bellicose nations, like Soviet Russia, which are not attached to the League. In estimating the value of the League’s endeavours it is to be borne in mind, however, that disarmament really constitutes an extremely difficult and complex problem, mainly by reason of the fact that no two nations regard it from quite the same standpoint. In May last there was a sitting of the Preparatory Commission for the Conference on the Limitation and Reduction of Armaments. This commission was formed as the result of a resolution of the League Assembly in 1925 which affirmed that it was possible, and, indeed, necessary, to make a preparatory study of the matters indicated with a view to a conference. The Preparatory Commission has not produced any cut-and-dried scheme. It had to decide in the first case what was meant by the term “armaments.” The necessity for a definition raised from the beginning a sharp difference of opinion between Groat Britain and France on the whole problem of disarmament. In reply to

the French demand for an investigation into the potential war strength of the different nations, Viscount Cecil pointed out that this could lead to no practical result, because it was impossible by any procedure of international law to limit the economic and industrial resources of a country. The commission succeeded in reaching the, conclusion that, if armaments were to be reduced, the reduction must apply to existing armaments, and could not be extended to what are called the potential factdrs of war. It circulated among the interested Governments a questionnaire with the object of ascertaining whether, on the basis of' the answers received, sufficient common ground could be discovered on which to convene a Disarmament Conference next year. The char-

acter of the questions, and the difficulties that emerged in the discussion of them, go far to explain Viscount Cecil’s unwillingness to see arrangements for a conference pushed on before the ground has been thoroughly prepared. There is much force in his statement at Geneva: “We cannot even afford to contemplate failure.'* M. Boncour, on behalf of France, has suggested that there should be a speeding-up of the work of the Preparatory Commission with a view to the holding of a Disarmament Conference before the Assembly again meets a year hence, and the Assembly seems to have agreed that that is desirable. The eagerness of France for an early conference is being attributed to her recognition of the impossibility of reorganising her finances if she is indefinitely to maintain a large army. Whether the Disarmament Conference is held nest year will now depend upon what the Preparatory Commission and the committees working in conjunction with it may be able to accomplish in the meantime. Since the commission was set up, Germany has entered the League. That she should do so was a necessary preliminary to the application of the Locarno idea to the problem of, disarmament.