ARMS LIMITATION

Southland Times, Issue 22076, 25 July 1933, Page 7

ARMS LIMITATION

CHEERLESS OUTLOOK DIVERGENT EUROPEAN VIEWPOINTS MR HENDERSON’S TOUR (United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright.) (Rec. 7 p.m.) London, July 24. Mr Arthur Henderson has returned to London after consultations in Paris, Rome, Berlin, Prague and Munich, bringing cheerless impressions of the Disarmament Conference. The bureau meets at Geneva on September 20 to hear Mr Henderson’s report, but it is doubtful whether any progress will be made in the coming autumn. FrancoGerman divergencies are still the chief obstacle, and the problem of FrancoItalian parity remains unsolved. Paris messages indicate that the French insist that progress in disarmament is impossible without effective control, on which they will not compromise because they are convinced Germany is rearming to-day on a larger scale and with greater speed than at any time since the war. They will therefore refuse to disarm without an effective, dependable system of control and inspection. Moreover, they will insist that any such system must be given a trial for a period. Herr Hitler, during a talk with Mr Henderson, is understood to have flatly rejected the trial period idea, which does not surprise the French, who point out that any real system of control is bound to reveal Germany’s secret armaments; therefore Germany naturally wishes to disarm France, even before such control is established.