Evening star., 1926-01-10
CUT IN WORLDS ARMIES
GOAL OF LEAGUE PARLEY
Sea. Air and Land Force Limitation to
BE As!led-United States Interested
in Navy Slash.

: Costa Rica has the smallest force, 900
! men.
/ Oyeauica is credited with active
armies totaling 3.l9l, divided between
/ Australia, with ?.69l, and New Zea-
| land, with 800.
The organized reserves of the Ear'
Gus nations are not included IN IN"
! tiEurgS given. nor, OF course, the uil-
organized reserves The picture pre-
scented if the entire military man
power. active. organized reserves and
unorganized reserves he included be-
comes at once very different. with the
United States, Great Britain, Ger
many and other nations assuming
vastly larger proportions.
The world total, however, OF active
armies is estimated at 6.o65. .l5S.
II costs quite a pretty sum to Keep
six million men under arms and away
from the producing end of the world :
livelihood II the case Of many Ot
the nations as with the United States,
the active armies are as low as they
can be with safety To the govern
lnents from within the nations them
selves. ON the other hand. in many
OF the countries the armies are com
paratively very large, to be prepared
10 resist aggression from without.
Purpose of Conference.
The purpose OF the coming confer
ence, SO far as land aruIamentS and
air forces are concerned, IL to bring
about mutual agreements among these
nations to reduce these large armies
To a size which may properly he con
Sidered merely requisite TO meet III
ternal conditions that may arise, and
| which would provide al least skele-
ton organization upon which to form
an army - meet attack from without.
Four wears ago, at the Washington
arms conference, it became imm -di-
4J"ly apparent that no agreement
could then be reached with regard to
he limitation of land armaments. And
so closely are the problems nt land
and naval armament involved, as, for
example. in any. agreement 10 which
Great Britain and France might sub
scribe, that it became Impossible 10
deal with naval ornaments except i'll
50 far As capital ships are concerned.
Vigorous efforts We're made at that
time 10y Great Britain 10 bring about
the OuUlHwiuG Of submarines, but
without avail.
Eut world conditions have moved
/ apace since then. The Dawes plan for
/ dealing with German reparationS has
been accepted and put into operation:
the LOCarno security and arbitration
treaties have been negotiated. InVu!y-
ing the great nations Of Europe; Ger
many has again h"Hu admitted Ia the
family nf nations and is expected soon
t. beroue Il member al the Least OF
Nations; EuSSia bad been recognized
by many ot the nations ana appears
to be in much more stable situation.
The Lea que Of Nations itself. which
has issued In" invita- tionS for the pre-
liminary conference soon to he held in
Geneva 70 make plans for the arms
conference proper, has become more
and more a recognized power Tor
peace.
Hopeful OF Outcome.
1t is with some measure Ut hope
therefore. that the problem Of lnui-
tati"n ri land arInameuts AMI further
Imitation uf naval arIuameutS il - I've
tackled again
At tn. Washington conference "a
note uf hop was sounded THAI has mot
yet died away. The treaties which grew
out of that meeting have added much
10 the probability of international
peace. The costly race in the develop
ment of naval ornaments was largely
| halted. The United States. with q
naval building program already ,hen
under way which promised to make
this country the greatest naval power
the world ever saw and the resources
To carry such q. program 10 q con
Ciusinn. had much To offer 1t that
conference. and the GeH"r"us Offer
mad 'y Secretary Hughes d. The
state Department. h-s.t 81 he Amer
lean delegation. PROV id~d n dramatic
opening which carried the conference
onward to success.
In the coming conference ON land
arnnaments this country has nothing
to offer. except its moral support. 1t
has already cut its land forces to the
bone. SO far as naval ornaments are
concerned, however this country has
stood ready since 1922 to limit auXil-
iary craft in the same ratio that the
capital ships were limited.
Suggestion has been made that the
proposed arms conference be divided
So that there shall be a conference on
! land and air ornaments and another
on naval armamentS. It has been in
timated that this would be entirely
acceptable 10 President Coolidge and
the United States Government, and
even that such a conference might
well he held in the United States.
However, 1t is a fact that in the case
of the European nations the question
Of naval armamentS is so closely re-
lated and interviewer with that of
land armaInentS that such prOce-
dure might not be feasible.