FACTS OF DISARMAMENT.

Waikato Times, Volume 110, Issue 18405, 12 August 1931, Page 6

FACTS OF DISARMAMENT.

In his review of the problem of disarmament in the British House ot Commons the Prime Minister revealed a state of things that might fairly be described as startling. While Great Britain has for years past been engaged on cutting down her fighting strength other countries have been steadily adding to theirs. Thus, 12 years after the Armistice, Britain finds herself in the midst of a world armed to the teeth—a world heading for disaster. To avert that disaster a great effort is to be made next year, when an International Disarmament Conference will assemble at Geneva. The meeting will mark a dividing line In history—a golden line if successful, a darkly ominous one if it ends In failure; and failure will undoubtedly attend it unless the opinion of civilised mankind, marshalled strongly on the side of rtason and humanity, asserts itself through its chosen spokesmen. It Is well that the public throughout the British Empire should understand clearly the bold and even perilous nature of the lead which Britain has given the nations in this matter. The Navy is the bulwark ot the nation's existence. To-day it is only a skeleton of what It once was, but still has 80,000 miles ot trade routes to protect. The Army, from which historic regiments have disappeared, is no more than an Imperial police force, whose duties, however, still range all over the globe. The Air Force has been cut to the bone, while France, Italy, Russia and the United States are multiplying their squadrons. The Prime Minister told the Commons that the process of disarmament, so . far as Great Britain Is concerned, has reached its limit. In doing what she has done she has already taken grave risks; and If she Is to continue along the same course, then it can only be in company with the other great nations. These latter must, before the Conference assembles in February next, take decisions tint may very well affect the lives of millions and the future of civilisation. The science of war, as everybody knows, has undergone a complete revolution. At a time when men can fly round the world in nine days, neither oceans nor continents raise a barrier against attack. Given command of modern resources, no point in either hemisphere is safe from aeroplanes and bombs from the other side of the earth. The last war was one of prodigious slaughter. At the destruction that will be wrought in the next—if there be a next—imagination is staggered. The laboratories of the world have made discoveries by means of which whole populations, over vast areas, could be wiped out. Are men, through sheer Indifference, going to allow these monstrous weapons to destroy them? It Is time for the nations to take stock of their danger in time. Britain has shown them the way. If the British spirit predominates next year at Geneva then all will be well. It it does not, if the nations, while signing treaties to outlaw war, persist in preparing for battle, Britain, too, will have to look to her armour. Disarmament by all means, but not suicide I