THE ROAD TO PEACE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17127, 6 December 1929, Page 7

THE ROAD TO PEACE

“LITTERED WITH CANNON” LLOYD GEORGE’S ATTACK GOVERNMENT CRITICISED

(Klee. Tel. Copyright—United Press Assn.) LONDON, Dec. 5.

In the House of Commons, Mr. T. L. Bnrgin, Liberal member for Luton, moved a motion calling on the Government to stimulate international action for the comprehensive reduction of armaments and expressing the opinion that the country’s defence ought to be co-ordinated.

Air. Lloyd George said that he had always strongly favored co-ordination of defence. No Government had ever sat down to consider the problem of defence as a whole. “How much we suffered in the Great. War because not merely was a war taking place in Flanders and Gallipoli, hut a departmental war was going oil at Whitehall!” he said. “That was far and away the greatest problem with which we had to deal. It would have been far better, from the viewpoint of efficiency, if we had one man in charge instead of the Admiralty and the War Office grabbing for men, even grabbing in strategy.

“There is no doubt that, when the whole story of the Dardanelles is told, it will be found that our failure was largely due to lack of co-ordination. Without blaming anyone in particular, it was a pre-eminently stragetical problem only solvable by perfect harmony and co-ordination between the forces. We could have had a far more efficient defensive force at less cost if there had been less jealousy amongst the departments which were lighting each other. It was something inconceivable that each department should he milking the Treasury, which was fatal from the viewpoint of economy. President Hoover, ihe first official of a great nation, has had the courage to remind us that the men under arms throughout the world, including active reserves, are now 10 millions above tho pre-war total. There are far more powerful weapons of destruction in the world now than before the war.”

MACHINERY OF HATE

Mr. Lloyd George asked what the Government was going to do to force the League’s Disarmament Commission to deal with the question. The commission had done absolutely nothing. “It is,” he added, “a farce The present Government lacked by President Hoover, Jiad the power to insist on something being done. 1 feel deeply on the subject, as one who had a good deal to do with the manufacture of arms and signed the disarmament obligations and peace treaty which all Allies had trampled on. You are not going to get peace with millions of armed men. The chariot of peace cannot advance along a road littered with cannon. You must break up the machinery of hatred and convert it to the mechanism of peace and progress.”

Sir,, Samuel Hoare said that Britain had greatly reduced its fighting force. Mr. Lloyd George : 1 am glad of the opportunity of admitting that Britain has done more than any other country m this direction. Sir Samuel Hoare said the limitations of the Air Force should be confined to those used for aggressive purposes. If the question of air armaments were kept separate they might at first seek an agreement for Anglo-French and Italian parity.

Mr. A. V. Alexander, replying to tli« debate, maintained that no Government had done more to stimulate international feeling or disarmament. The sacrifice of armaments by One country alone would not solve the problem. A solution would be found when all nations co-operated to reduce armaments to the minimum required to maintain peace.

The motion ,was' agreed to unanimously.