Seward daily gateway., 1925-05-01
NEW ARMS TREATY
 TO AMERICAS LIKING SOUGHT BY LEAGUE
(By Associated Press)

l GENEVA, Apr. 30.-Subsequent to
 it's active participation in the inter
 national opium conference, the Uni ted States soon will take part in
 another international congress, that 1 for the control of the international
 trade in arms. This conference, giv-
 en great importance as a part of the
 general world disarmament move
 ment, will open at the League pal ace May 5. Up to the present time
 32 countries have signified their in l tention to be represented. All the
 great powers will be there.
 The technical preparation for this conference has probably been exceed ed by that of no other world cong ress. The leagues disarmament sec 1 tion has been studying data for years
 assembling material from all parts
 of the world and compiling complete 1 documents with all kinds of infor-
 nation calculated to assist the dele
 gates in their delibera tions.
 The league people discovered it
 was hopeless to do anything real in
 controlling the traffic in arms with
 out the collaboration of the United
 States. Tn this respect their experi- ence was similar to that of the 1 league experts who striving to elab-
 crate system of sanctions against an aggressOr state in cOnsonance
 with the provisions of the Geneva peace protocol which was recently
 rejected by Great Britain, soon came
 to the conviction that any system of measures taken against a culpa-
 ble state could never be assured of
 success while the United States re-
 mained outside the system.
 1 So the big problem of the organiz-
 CTS of the coming arms conference
 was to devise means of bringing
 about American participation with some assurance that a document
 would emerge that would satisfy all the American objections to the con vention for the control of arms traf- fic signed in 1919 at St. Germain-en- Lave, France.
 The Washington objections to the 1919 convention were that it did not permit trade in arms win countries not parties to it, thus preventing the United States from supplying arms
 to many Central or South American countries; that the United States could not subscribe in advance to in- ternational legislation which the government could not guarantee that congress would enact; and that the
 provisions of the convention, in re- lation to the League of Nations, were
 so closely interwoven with the con- vention as to make it impossible for the American government, which is
 not a member of the league, to rat l ify the convention.
 It is now pointed out that the draft convention to be submitted in May 1 has eliminated the first American Ob- | jection, because the export of arms is permissible under certain restric- tions.
 Great difficulty was found in meet ing the second American objection.
 Eventually, the situation was thought to be best treated by inserting a clause whereby any government may declare that it accepts the provis-
 ons of the convention partially or
 conditionally, provided the other sig natories consent. and provided this
 kind of adherence does not interfere with the effectiveness of the super vision of the trade in arms and war material.
 As to the third point raised by the