EQUALITY OF ARMAMENTS

Taranaki Daily News, 16 May 1932, Page 9

EQUALITY OF ARMAMENTS

FRANCE BARS THE WAY. NO LATITUDE FAVOURED. London, May 5. The report that the British Prime Minister, Mr. Ramsay MacDonald, the American Secretary of State, Mr. H. L. Stimson, and the representatives of Italy and Russia agreed when at Geneva favourably to consider Germany’s claim to equality of armaments has received a cold reception in France. In return for this concession Germany was prepared to refrain from increasing her armed forces until the next disarmament conference. The French semi-official Press, says the Paris correspondent of the Times, retorts that “since the German armaments were definitely fixed by the Treaty of Versailles, her promise not to increase them is meaningless, unless Germany is threatening deliberately to violate the treaty.” It is further declared, that even the General Armaments Convention could not relieve Germany from her treaty obligations. Britain and Italy, it is pointed out, are signatories to the treaty, which cannot be revised except with the consent of all the parties concerned. No Franco-German rapprochement is possible, it is stated, if Germany persists in her present demands.