Poverty Bay Herald PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING GISBORNE, WEDNESDAY, DEC. 7, 1932.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 17956, 7 December 1932, Page 6

Poverty Bay Herald PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING GISBORNE, WEDNESDAY, DEC. 7, 1932.

THE ARM AMENTS DEADLOCK At: the moment it would seem as though the Disarmament Conference at Geneva has proved abortive, though doubtless last minute endeavors are being made to bring the representatives of the principal nations togethoi in an effort to Jiml a formula acceptable to all. It seems to be generally recognised that these great international assemblies are 100 unwieldy and that much more pi nodical work can be accomplished by a few leading statesmen at a round-table talk. Great was the cry a few years ago for “Open Diplomacy,” and “No Secret Negotiations,” but -experience has proved that open diplomacy, especially with a chattering congregation of nationalities, many of whom have but a very minor interest in the matters under discussion, gets the world nowhere. Therefore the proposal now seems to be to delegate to a commission comprising just a few members of the principal Powers the task of iinding avenues of agreement with regard to the disuse of various forms of arms. And prospect of an immediate curtailment of armaments on such a grand scale as would have made war impossible seems to have been abandoned, and the suibject is now to be tackled piecemeal in the hope of mitigating the horrors of war. ft would appear that the principal obstacle the Conference has had to overcome was the German demand for equality in armaments. But this element in the situation was not new. Germany had frequently reminded her colleagues at the various conferences that they had not lived up to the promise of the Versailles Treaty to emulate the enforced German example and cut their armaments to the bone. All that has recently happened is that German patience has broken through and that its Government has declared that if tin* Powers will not disarm they should at | least recognise Germany’s right; to arm up to their level. This proposi- ! tion not being conceded, Germany j left the conference and the subsequent | proceedings have been merely a fruitless endeavor to find some plan that will attract her back to the fold. France will not and cannot allow Germany to arm up to her level. Neither can France disarm down to Germany’s level. The reason for this is clear. There are more than sixty million Germans and less than forty million Frenchmen. Arm them in precisely 1 the same manner and Germany would j have a three to two superiority. She could march right' down to the Loire. . So long as France is sufficiently armed to prevent this from happening, she ; will prevent it, and all the confer- | ences in the world will not shake her. 1 So when Germany demands equality of j armaments she demands something j that her military experts know per- j fectly well France will never concede.

The opposite .is equally true. Germany

will never consent to remain per- 1 manently and without protest in a! position of inferiority in the field of armaments. She admits that she does not expect armaments at, once that will equal those of France. She only asks the right to aim in that direc-tion—-the right to spend her armament money in her own way. The Versailles Treaty restricts very definitely her trained forces and armaments, and since the other nations have not com plied with the reduction promise of that treaty she urges that she should have the privilege of varying the clauses .which tie her hands. Italy is no unimportant participator in the conversations. Mussolini, whilst heartily supporting Germany’s claim to equality in armaments, makes it very plain that ho does not mean that Germany should arm up to the French level, but that Franco .should disarm down to hers. Seeing that France and Italy have been in keen competition for naval supremacy in the Mediterranean, and each still has extensive building programmes, this suggestion is naturally viewed with some suspicion by France, though Italy is doubtless sincere, for it is well known that she has been finding the strain of competition severe and would welcome a respite. Then there is Russia ■—•a factor that cannot be disregarded. Russia, of course, is for complete disarmament, for then her ISO millions would be masters of Europe. The Red Army, which is larger than any other army in the world, is well equipped and drilled. Nickel, used in making covers for bullets and armor plating, is bought in tremendous quantities. Special attention is given to the manufacture of guns, rifles and aeroplanes. To insure adequate food supplies, vast State farms have been formed in the Volga district, in. Siberia and Caucasia. Already these farms comprise 2,400.000 acres, and they are expected to produce 8,000,000 tons of grain per annum. It would bo the height of folly for other European Powers to sweep away, or even seriously minimise their powers of defence, and trust to Godless Russia abolishing the very powerful military organisation she has created, or to any promises of a pacific nature that the Soviet loaders might make, for the undisguised objective of the Russian plan is complete world domination. What, then, is to be the outcome of all these patient negotiations? Economic conditions, not less than humanitarian considerations, are inexorably demanding the reduction of the world’s armaments. The United States representative is standing by demanding some written agreement that he can take homo and use as an argument for the cancellation of war debts. He quite overlooks the fact that the crux of the naval situation lies at present between Japan and the United States. There is less prospect of a naval conflict in European waters than in the Pacific, and the United States recognises this by the additions to her navy she lias recently ordered. We fear that the idea of a general dis'armament is a dream and that the most we can hop.' for is an agreement for the elimination of the more barbarous methods of warfare, which agreement, however, would be very difficult to maintain if another Anna geddon broke out.