DISARMAMENT SCHEMES

Taranaki Daily News, 23 April 1932, Page 5

DISARMAMENT SCHEMES

PROHIBITION OF. ..CLASSES

16 COUNTRIES IN SUPPORT

ROUMANIANS COUNTER-MOVE AN INTERNATIONAL FARCE British Wireless. Rugby, April 21. Geneva to-day has been the meeting place of many leading statesmen. M. Tardieu returned to Geneva unexpectedly from Paris by the train which brought the British Prime Minister. The two Prime Ministers, together with Dr. Bruening, Mr. H. L. Stimson, Signor Grandi and Sir John Simon, lunched together as guests of Lord Londonderry, the British Air Minister. They held private conversations at various times at the disarmament conference, which they attended. The General Commission continued the debate on qualitative disarmament and the French plan for an international army to be placed at the disposal of the League, M. Boncour defended the scheme, and it was criticised by several later speakers, including the South African delegate, Mr. Te Water, who likened it to turning the sword, not into ploughshares but into tanks. Sixteen " countries supported Sir John Simon’s proposal calling for the prohibition of certain instruments of war, but to-night M. Titulesco, Roumania, presented a counter resolution in the name of 14 countries, which are unspecified but are understood to include France which, while favouring the principles of qualitative reductions of aggressive armaments, advocated that the question whether these should be abolished or placed at the service of the League should be discussed.

The Commission adjourned until to-mor-row without voting. Mr. MacDonald’s entrance caused a flutter of excitement at the meeting. The first to greet him was Litvinoff, Soviet representative, who walked up and gave him a cordial handshake.