A.—s

15

to such Disarmament Convention, or which shall fail to carry out its obligations under such a convention, shall be entitled to the benefits of the present convention. As to the third question, concerning the stipulations with regard to the vote of the Council, the cases in which unanimity will be required, those in which a simple majority will suffice, and, finally, the determination of those States which will not take part in the vote, the majority of the Third Committee held that in framing these stipulations it was desirable to follow as closely as possible the exact terms of the Covenant. Accordingly, the following text was adopted on the first reading for the first two paragraphs of Article 26 : — "1. Decisions of the Council under Article 1 shall .require the agreement of all the members represented at the meeting other than the representatives of the parties to the dispute. "2. All other decisions taken by the Council in virtue of the present convention shall be taken by a simple majority of the members represented at the meeting other than the representatives of the parties to the dispute." The Third Committee eventually submitted for approval by the Assembly the following resolution " The Assembly—having examined the Draft Convention on Financial Assistance drawn up by the Financial Committee ; noting that the determination of the cases in which this assistance could or should be granted is in close relation with the general problem of the definition of the aggressor and with that of the means of preventing war, and that the connection between financial assistance and the reduction and limitation of armaments has been recognized and should be thoroughly examined ; taking into consideration the various! amendments which have been submitted, several of which necessitate adjustment in the technical machinery of the plan of assistance, whereas others are of a political character —requests the Council to take steps to ensure the early establishment of a complete text capable of being submitted to States for signature at the earliest possible date. It accordingly suggests that the Council should instruct the Committee on Arbitration and Security to draw up this text in co-operation with the Financial Committee. The text would, after it had been communicated to the Governments, be submitted for the approval either of a special Conference or, at the latest, for that of the next Assembly." I have dealt at length—perhaps it might be considered at inordinate length—in this report with this issue of financial assistance to a particular State wrongly and agressively attacked by some enemy. Ido so because the question of financial assistance is rapidly coming into the realm of practical politics. Disarmament. After some desultory and general remarks on the subject of disarmament, Viscount Cecil moved a resolution submitted by the British delegation, as follows : — " The Assembly, being convinced that a progressive and general reduction of armaments is urgently needed throughout the world, expresses the hope that the Preparatory Commission will finish its labours at the earliest possible moment, and considers that in completing the Draft Disarmament Convention it should consider how far the following principles have been or ought to be adopted : — " (a) The application of the same principles to the reduction and limitation of personnel and material whether in land, sea, or air forces ; " (b) The limitation of the strength of a force either by limiting its numbers or its period of training, or both ; " (c) The limitation of material either directly by enumeration or indirectly by budgetary limitation, or by both methods ; " (d) The recognition of a competent international authority to watch and report upon the execution of the treaty." In reviewing the progress made by the League, Viscount Cecil stated that, while great progress had certainly been made in the direction of agreement upon arbitration, unfortunately the same did not hold true with regard to disarmament, which was really the more important subject from the point of view of ensuring peace. Treaties regarding security and arbitration are, after all, agreements resting on the good faith of the parties and affecting principally the future, whereas disarmament alone was a positive and immediate step towards the cause of peace. He reviewed, point by point, what had actually been done regarding disarmament. With regard to air, the broad general principles of reduction were laid down in 1927 : nothing material had been done since. With regard to sea, they all remembered the unhappy deadlock at Geneva in 1927. Nothing further had been done by the Preparatory Commission, but, fortunately, a great deal had been accomplished outside the Commission. In this connection, however, he wished to make one qualifying observation. It would be unwise to imagine that reduction of naval armaments by itself would secure peace, though it may help materially in that direction. History showed clearly, however, that, while navies had often taken important part, wars had always been determined ultimately by the warfare which had taken place on land. With regard to land forces, there had been no material advance since 1927 ; it might even be said that there had been retrogression. Viscount Cecil regarded paragraph (c) of the British resolution —i.e., that regarding material —as the most important of all. He stressed this point again and again. In modern warfare, he declared, more and more the question of material rather than the number of soldiers determined the result. The limitation of material had been agreed to in principle, at any rate, with regard to sea and air forces, but nothing had been achieved regarding material for land warfare. Nothing had been done with regard to the limitation of budgetary expenditure : and, finally, with regard to the question of