The Daily Alaska empire., 1928-07-31
WTTHDRAVVS CHARGES AGAINST SMITH
LEAGUE SAYS KELLOGG PACT HASTENS WORLD DISARMAMENT
By J. E. SHARkEY JAP. Correspondent)

GENEVA, July 31.-The League of Nations has embraced the Bri- and-kellogg anti-war treaty uncon- ditionally. League officials see in it the end of American isola- ton and the beginning Of real progress toward disarmament.
 There will never be another meeting of the Leagues prepara- tory disarmament commission, . said a prominent diplomat and friends who heard him were as- founded.
 He explained his blunt statement by saying that the nations of the earth would never bind themselves to an official. international agree ment to keep their armaments at a certain low level.
 Careful inquiry has disclosed that the best informed diplomatic opinion in Geneva shares this view. ] Elementary instincts toward self preservation, they say, will pre- vent wholesale disarmament.
 League circles believe that a world conference will be called this fall to sign the pacts out lawing war" Once this Is done they believe that progress toward disarmament can be made quietly and logically. without the bally- hoo which has accompanied previ- ous efforts to reduce armies and navies.
 Present world opinion. they de- clare, is strongly against heavy armament and most nations would be only too eager to swing the axe on defense expenditures, once they could feel secure.
 In other words. the opinion is that limitation, or reduction of arr maments. will logically and inevi- tably spring from the desires of the public. in the various countries but that it can never be forced on the world public as whole by collective or international agreement. In short, collective disarmament is called delusion. u. S. Plans
 The hesitancy with which the Congress of the United States ap- proves what Washington has styi- ed moderate novel building pro- gram is remarked upon here as evidence that national public opin- ion, expressed through national legislators, will be slow to counsel any big construction of arma- ments in time of peace. The plan of France to reduce It's service of army conscripts from eighteen months to one year for all recruits is cited as another straw which indicates that the force of arma- ments is expanded. or reduced. in proportion to the feeling of na- tional security.
 And the position of Mnssolini that Italy, while willing to cut her ornaments to as low n point as any other nation, yet must main- tain the right to have as large an army or fleet as any other nation in Europe, is being seized upon to ], prove the correctness of the theory that collective disarmament ! agreement is delusion. On pa- per, in a formal, international trea- ty, say observers here, Mussolini would doubtless insist upon the right to build as large narmy and navy as France, and, perhaps. even as England, yet in point of fact, the Italian fighting force is far inferior to that of France.
 Geneva Opinion
 Incidentally, Geney opinion fears the effect of the demand of Soviet Russia for complete disarm- ament. It is being argued here that as total disarmament seems out of the question as practical measure, Soviet insistenee on this at future meetings of the disarm. ament commission can only re. tard concrete results, as nations (Continued on Page Three)