New Britain herald., 1926-05-20
GERMANY WANTS n
 STOP POISON GAS
Also FaVorS Abolition of Planes
 and Heavy Artillery
VIEWS ON DISARMAMENT
Won BernstorfT Explains Position of His Country - Rumanla Admits Fear of Russia - England And Poland Also Wary.

Poland Also Wary.
 Geneva, Switzerland, May 20 LP- Concrete proposals 10 forbid the use of airplanes and poison gas in warfare and suppress heavy artillery and tanks were put forward by Ger many today at the session of the preparatory disarmament commis- sion. The proposals were presented \hy Count Von Bernstorff, former am- bassador to the United States.
 Germanys Position
 Answering allusiops to Gcrmany's industrial strength, which would have to be taken into account when Germany's neighbors were asked to dlsarm. Count Non BernstorM de- clared:
 q don't want to evoke memories of the past, but history has demon strated that the impossibility Of transforming our industrial equip ment into implements of war, pri- marily because of our factories are so near the frontier that they can be destroyed at the very outset of war.
 Count Won Bcrnstorff complained that a number of delegates to the conference seemed to approach the problem with view to discovering why nations should not disarm rather than to finding reasons why they should. He declared that the creation of the League of Nations has changed the whole aspect of the world because it made war virtually impossible since q conflict only could occur between the League and an aggrcssor state.
 Germany Cannot Arm
 He further complained that Ger many has been forbidden by the treaty ot Versailles to organize a defense against attack by airplane. We can understand the desire Of some countries to have security be- cause Germany hasn't security" he added.
 Alluding to the shortage of food in Germany during the world war, Count Non Bernstorff insisted that in taking stock of the potential war strength of various countries, the commission also must consider their potential weaknesses. The difficult ty of a nation which does not possess colonies in feeding it's population and in securing raw material must be taken into consideration, he said.
 He appealed for at least some form of reduction of armaments in order that the world might not be intensely disappointed and the prestige of the League of Nations be lowered.
 The Russian Menace
 The spectre of an immense Rus sia which might put into the field a huge army was conjured up by General Dumitresco of Rumania, as q reason why a country like Ru- mania is obliged to consider the strength of its ncighbors in deciding what reduction it can make in its own army.
 He supported the French view that disarmament depends almost entirely on security. He felt that armaments must be sufficient to pre- vent inyaSiCn until assistance could come from without, assistance that perhaps might operate through the League of Nations. This help should be military as well as economic and financial. he said.
 Finland took q similar stand, her spokesman frankly declaring that since Russia had refused to partlcl- pate in the present conference, there was no way to determine her real intentions. The Finnish representa- tive recommended that the League covenant be made more effective as to the penalties imposed upon az grcssor nations. Naval, military and air support should be sent immed- lately to any invaded country.
 Poland's Position
 Poland lined up with Rumania and Finland, NJ. Sokal declaring that when Potand's security was more stable than at present, Poland would be willing to disarm, perhaps even to the extent of the United States, with one soldier to every thousand of population. He urged that the most practical solution of the whole problem of disarmament was 10 give the council of the League of Nations greater power to impose penalties mon aggressor nations quickly and efficiently.
 Gibson Speaks T,ihynr tho At1prip1f1 resentatiye, said the extent that land armaments in Europe may be re- duced undoubtedly would depend 1 upon the degree of security obtain | ed. Security, however, has a differ ent valuation for Europe and coun- tries of the western hemisphere, be- | cause of the difference in location, | the difference in population, and, to i ?, certain extent, the differences of | the national political situations.
 Mir. Gibson said his delegation be- .ieved that the question was largely | of q regional character and that the | only practical solution was the cf- fort to solve it on a regional rather than a universal basis.
 If we wait until absolute secur- ity has been obtained before ad- vancing in the direction of limita- ton of competitive armamcnts,' he said, we will find ourselves in a vicious circle, which probably will mean no arms limitation, nd at best an inadequate degree of secur- ity."
 Explains Methods In West
 MT. Gibson admitted that while security might have an important