TRAFFIC IN ARMS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 20109, 30 March 1928, Page 7

TRAFFIC IN ARMS

THE LEAGUE CONVENTION Difficulties Outlined by Sir Austen Chamberlain SUPPLIES FOR CHINA. (By Telegraph-—Per Pretb amb. —Gopviurtt.) (By Radio). RUGBY, Alarch 28. Questions were asked in the House of Commons regarding the ratification of the League of Nations convention signed in 1925, providing for the control of international traffic in arms. In one question it was averred that the continuance of civil strife in China was prolonged by the case with which the contesting parties could obtain arms from Europe. Sir Austen Chamberlain, in replying, said that the British Government was prepared to ratify the convention at any moment when simultaneous ratification by the principal arms-produc-ing Powers could be secured. As he had stated on November 24, 1926, the British Government had jjiade this suggestion to the Governments of Austria, Belgium, Czccho-Slovakia, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and the United States of America. The replies received, however, indicated that there was no immediate prospect of simultaneous ratification by all these Governments.

In regard to the supply of arms to China for civil war purposes, the only operative instrument for controlling it was the China arms embargo agreement of 1919, Sir Austen went on. The effectiveness of this agreement had been largely impaired by the fact that some of the principal arms supplying States, notably Germany, Czecho-Slovakia, and the Soviet were not a party to it.

The possibility of making the embargo more fully effective had been considered at a meeting of the diplomatic body in Peking on February 21 last, when the German Alinister declared the readiness of his Government to accede to the agreement. The meet* ing decided that a telegram should be sent by all the representatives to their . respective Governments, drawing attention to the importance of the agreement, and to the necessity for preventing the importation of arms and munitions of war to China, and expressing the conviction that those powers who had not yet taken measures in this respect should be induced to do so as soon as possible. On March 1 the Japanese Foreign Minister handed a Note to the Soviet Ambassador urging that his Government should refrain from allowing the importation of arms into China by their nationals. Representations had also been made to the Czecho-Slovak Government by the British Alinister at Prague.

Dr. Benes had replied that Czechoslovakia would not become a party to the agreement prohibiting the export of arms to China, unless it were really an international one equally binding on all States.