NO EFFORT TOO GREAT

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18399, 17 May 1934, Page 6

NO EFFORT TOO GREAT

DISARMAMENT TASK SIR J. SIMON’S COMMENT POSITION NOT HOPELESS (British Official Wireless.) lice. 2 p.m. RUGBY, May 16. Sir Join) Simon, 'addressing tin' Federation <rt \\ omen’s .Institutes in l.ontion, described it us very distressing and serious that no international agreement on disarmament had yet oesn loathed. lie shared tlu; keen disappointment so widely felt, but did not share the view that because two years laid passed .without achieving an agreement therefore the whole enterprise was hopeless, and should be abandoned. Remarking that he hoped soon to attend the next meeting ot the conference, ,Sir John Simon stated : "Speaking on behalf of the British Government, 1 may say that we shall do the very test that can be done to bring an agreement about. I shall go to Geneva full of confidence, because I am profoundly convinced that the hearts and hopes of the British people are most deeply pledged on this issue. There is no effort too great, or persuasion that could’ be superlluous, for the purpose of bringing about an agreement. If an agreement is not reached, the League is going to suffer a severe blow. The British policy stands for the support and maintenance of the League. To substitute for this new world method of international cooperation the, old world methods of one country arming itself against another will not do.” While ha believed that valuable results would follow if the general level of armament was reduced, the real difficulty which faced the conference was not a. technical question as to how many arms of a particular kind a particular nation should have. Armaments were only an indication of the disease of fear, ami unless something could be done to strike at the root of this terrible disease tlie best technical experts in the world would not lie able to produce an argument for international disarmament. Mr. Arthur Henderson to-day denied a report that he had resigned from the presidency of the Disarmament Conference. He said he was making the necessary arrangements for the work to be resumed' on May 29, and was determined to do everything in his power to influence the conference to carry through its original task. 'Die Archbishop of Canterbury, impressed with the gravity of the international situation, has issued a manifesto emphasising the world-wide longing for peace, and pointing out that this has been frustrated by national fear and suspicion. Tlie world needed a sense of security with which the present scale of armaments was incompatible. The failure of the Disarmament Conference would inexcusably betray the hopes of multitudes. The price of security was willingness to accept collective action by the nations, as members of one commonwealth, failing which civilisation was imperilled.