ARMS DEADLOCK

Taranaki Daily News, 21 November 1933, Page 7

ARMS DEADLOCK

GRAVITY OF DISCUSSIONS EFFORTS BY THE BRITISH SIGN FROM HITLER WAITED OPINIONS WIDELY DIFFER BRITAIN REALISES DUTY By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright. London, Nov. 19. The gravity of the disarmament discussions at Geneva is emphasised by the Sunday papers. Sir John Simon and Mr. R. A. Eden, heads of the Foreign Office, are determined to attempt to prevent the total collapse of the conference, recognising that unless the deadlock due to Germany’s withdrawal is removed nothing the Powers remaining' at Geneva can do can stem an armaments race. All the Geneva reports are discouraging. The French Government is not in a position to support Britain’s effort to get the discussion on armaments reduction away from Geneva. The French Cabinet cannot make any bold deviation from its present policy because it would probably be defeated on the Budget next week. The Observer’s Berlin correspondent states there is every indication that Herr Hitler, is planning a surprise move. In the eyes of the Government Geneva is finished and Germany will neither go there nor discuss concessions within the sphere of the League. Sixty million people are looking to Herr Hitler to give a sign, and nothing would please them more than to see him and Signor Mussolini at a four Power conference at Rome. The Disarmament Conference delegates, including Sir John Simon, met at Geneva at Mr. Arthur Henderson’s invitation. The proceedings were inconclusive, revealing wide divergence in views. In the course of a speech at Edinburgh Mr. Stanley Baldwin said: “There are two facts that are burned into our minds. In the age in which we live war is as fatal for the victors as for the conquered. The second point is that another European war would be the end of Western civilisation as we know it. “In these circumstances what can any Government, do but what the British Government is doing—struggling without ceasing to attain an agreement on a European limitation of arms? Tire absence of Germany and the attitude of Italy as reported in the Press are the real political difficulties.' Germany withdrew from the Disarmament Conference and from Geneva at a moment when the hope of getting an agreement burned brighter than at any time since the question of disarmament was entered upon. "Our duty is to leave no stone unturned to overcome these political difficulties and resume our task of working out, even at the eleventh hour, a convention for the limitation of armaments. The London Daily Herald says that the Home Office is consulting leading doctors on the subject of organising measures to protect the civil population against poison gas attacks. Plans are also prepared for the removal of various "nerve centres” in case of an emergency. Whitehall is considered too vulnerable for the Admiralty, War Office and Air Ministry. A secret war-time capital has been chosen, well guarded against air attack. England, however, refuses to be stampeded into, gas attack hysteria. A London business man purchased 10,000 gas masks and advertised them for sale at six guineas each, but there was not a single response. MOVING TOWARD CRISIS I FRANCE HAS INFORMATION. ALLEGED REARMING BY GERMANY. Rec. 11 p.m.' London, Nov. 20. The French Government has received from the French Ambassador at Berlin information of a new and disturbing preparation for rearming Germany, which probably explains France’s refusal to make further concessions at Geneva, says the Paris correspondent of the Times. There is a growing impression that events are moving rapidly to a crisis demanding decisive and early action to protect French security. In consequence of Herr Hitler’s instructions every German commercial aeroplane now carries two pilots and a pilot-mechanic, though the British, French, Dutch and Belgian airlines are all content with a single pilot. Herr Hitler has thus increased the active personnel of German airlines by 50 per cent., creating a commercial air fleet which could be transformed into a war force as formidable as that of any Power.