AFTER NINE YEARS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16534, 29 December 1927, Page 10

AFTER NINE YEARS

EUROPE sfILL IN ARMED EXPECTANCY. LORD ROTHERMEEE’S WARNING. LONDON, Nov. 12. Viscount Rothennere, in an article entitled “After Nine Years 1 ” in last right’s Loudon Evening News, asks how far we have advanced towards the fulfitment of that early resolution that war ‘‘must never happen again.” He writes : “The answer, in 1927, is not encourage ing, Nine yen's after the ‘War to end. wai’ Europe- is sinking into an ’ attitude of armed expectancy exactly similar to that of 1914.

“If we glance at the redrawn map wo shall see that sparks, or pretexts for conceivable conflagration, are not lacking. It may even be said that they are more numerous than they were 14 years ago. “Whereas in 1914 ‘a balance of power’ between a flew mighty groups of jealously watchful Governments kept the world pledged to tho incessant tribute exacted by big armament firms, tho world' of to-day lias no less cause for anxiety as it contemplates the new “balance* revealed in the crazy patchwork of an attempted ethnological demarcation >

“Our expenditure ■on armaments is now huger than it Was before the war; and, in consequence, our industrial resources are still so crippled that wo can with difficulty meet the demands of the big armament school. The vicious eir do is here—an overtaxed nation is, by that taxation, prohibited from earning the gigantic sums annually extorted by those who profess to guard its safety. SQUANDERED MONEY.

"1 do not suggest that, as things stand at present, it, is our duty to strip ourselves of all means of defence against possible danger. But the return of Armistice Day irresistibly compels us to ask, first, whether the present Government’s frequently proclaimed longing for pence is to be discerned in hny effective sincerity of effort, to promote disarmament at Geneva, in Washington, or elsewhere; next, whether the huge

sums allocated meanwhile to the nation’s “safety.” are not squandered in utter oblivion of the lessons of the last war. “Looking back over tho years that separate us from 1918, one of the most depressing features of the retrospect is the prodigality' with which successive Governments have dissipated public moneys. | “To-day wo are faced by the tremendous fact that, as each year we commemorate the' host of those who died to end war, we find that preparations for other wars are increasing on every side. “It is the duty of every Government, of whatever political creed, to give us some reassurance that the future will pot- merely repeat tho past, or double and treble its terrors. “Whatever that reassurance, tho impressive anniversary of the first Armistice becomes, as far as our rulers are concerted, hardly better than a mockery both of the living add the dead.”

LORD GREY’S WARNING AGAINST PRESTIGE' POLICY. LONDON, Nov. 12. Viscount Grey, speaking on disarmament at a League of Nations meeting at Plymouth said: “The longer the doctrine of parity between the United States and Britain is regarded as a principle of naval discussion the more difficult will, things become. The two nations will soon bo building fleets against each other not so much for their requirements as for the sake of prestige. When the time comes to discuss next year’s, naval estimates .1 hope the Government will make clear what is the standard up to which wo are to build. What, reason is there for us to regard war with the United States as a contingency'' l do not regard tho recollection of the friction we had with the United States wlfrn we were at wav as in any way altering tho hpyothesis on which we proceeded in the years liofovo the war that -wo should not make the United States Navy the standard for Gur own shipbuilding.” Referring to the speech on the futility of war made by F^gld-Marshal Sir William Robertson, Viscount Grey said: “ The deduction he drew from the experience of live last wav was that it is

absolutely essential for nations to avoid war in the future. Fear must be re- j moved before the armaments can be reduced. Armaments will decrease in proportion as the souse of security against war increases.”