LAUSANNE CONFERENCE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 75, Issue 140, 16 June 1932, Page 7

LAUSANNE CONFERENCE

ARCHBISHOP’S APPEAL [ British Official Wireiese. ] RUGBY, June 14. M. Herriot called on Mr. MacDou aid this morning and they resumed their study of documents relative to the Lausanne Conference. The statesmen in Geneva spent today mainly in informal conversations. Mr. MacDonald and Sir John Simon were the luncheon guests of Mr. Hugo Gibson, chief of the United States delegation at the Disarmament Conference, and in the afternoon conferred with Signor Grandi. The Archbishop of York and several of his episcopal colleagues in a letter to the Press expresses disappointment that up to the present no progress has been made at the Geneva Conference towards serious disarmament and express the fear that unless a definite effective policy is adopted by the Powers at the conference within the next few days, a breakdown may be difficult to avoid. The signatories of a letter press for a substantial reduction of those armaments which by the treaty are prohibited to Germany. Mr. A. Henderson stated yesterday that the moment had come when great decisions must and would be made. The Times points out: “It cannot be too emphatically stated that these decisions can only be taken by responsible representatives. The leading nations’ experts must do their part. They have the principal data. The question they have to answer is really very simple- Are other Governments in the world prepared to supply to their own cases, in whole or in part, the limitations of armaments imposed on the vanquished countries after the war? Are they ready to abolish, curtail, or internationalise for their own use weapons which were declared to be of an especially offensive character in 1919, the largest warships, largest guns, tanks, submarines and aeroplanes? In these days of national impoverishment most countries would probably warmly welcome an opportunity to reduce their budgets by any commonly agreed on proportional plan. ’ ’ At a private meeting of the Disarmament ; Conference, the procedure committee resolution was adopted, the effect of which is to suspend the main work of the conference until the conclusion of the discussions now taking place between representatives of the big Powers.