REDUCED ARMAMENTS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 72, Issue 290, 6 December 1929, Page 9

REDUCED ARMAMENTS

SPEECHES IN COMMONS LIBERALS SHOW IMPATIENCE Referring to President •Hoover’s reminder that there were now ten millions more —men nder arms throughout the world than immediately prior to the war, and that there were now far more powerful weapons of destruction in the world, Mr Lloyd George, speaking in the Commons, made a strong appeal for peace. [By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright] Recevied December 5, 11 p.m. LONDON, Dec. 5. In the House of Commons, Mr E. L. Burgin, Liberal member for Luton, moved a motion calling on the Government to stimulate international action for a comprehensive reduction of armaments, expressing the opinion that the country’s defences ought to be coordinated.

Mr Lloyd George said he always strongly favoured co-ordination of defence. No Government ever sat down to consider the problem of defence as a whole. “How much we suffered in the Great War, because not merely was a war taking place in Flanders and Gallipoli but a departmental war was going on at Whitehall. That was far and away the greatest problem with which we had to deal. It would have been far better from the viewpoint of efficiency if we had had one man in charge instead of an Admiralty and War Office grabbing for men and even grabbing in strategy,” he said. Dardanelles Failure. There was no doubt that when the whole story of the Dardanelles was told it would be found that our failure was largely due to lack of co-ordina-tion. Without blaming anyone in particular, it was a pre-eminently strategical problem, only solvable by perfect harmony and co-ordination between the forces. We could have a far more effiicent defensive force at less cost if there were less jealousy amongst the Department which were fighting each other. It was sometimes inconceivable that each department should be milking the Treasury, which was fatal from the viewpoint of economy. Mr Hoover, the first official of a great nation, had had the courage to remind us that men under arms throughout the world, including active reserves, were now ten millions above the prewar total. There were far more powerful weapons of destruction in the world now than before the war. Commission a Farce.

Mr Lloyd George asked what the Government was going io do to force the League’s disarmament commission to deal therewith. The commission had done absolutely nothing. It was a farce. The present Government, backed by Mr Hoover, had the power to insist on something being done. 44 1 feel deeply on this subject, as one who has had a good deal to do with the manufacture of arms and has signed disarmament obligations and a peace treaty which all the Allies have trampled on. You are not going to get peace with millions of armed men. The chariot of peace cannot advance along a road littered by cannon. You must break up the machinery of hatred and convert it to the mechanism of peace and progress.” Sir Samuel Hoare said that Britain had greatly reduced her fighting forces.

Mr Lloyd George: lam glad of the opportunity of admitting that Britain has done more than any other country in this direction.

Sir Samuel Hoare said that limitations of air forces should be limited to those used for aggressive purposes. If the question of air armaments were kept separate they might at first seek an agreement for Anglo-Franco-Italian parity. Mr Alexander, replying to the debate, maintained that no Government had done more to stimulate international feeling on disarmament. The sacrifice of armaments by one country alone would not solve the problem. The solution would be found when all the nations co-operated to reduce armaments to the minimum required to maintain peace.

The motion was agreed to unanimously.