Evening star., 1930-12-11
POWERS WILL FACE
ARMS CUT DIVIDED
Treaty Revision Issue Held
Remaining to PerpIex
Conference.
BY PAUL SCOTT MowRER.
" Radio 70 The star.

~ Radio to The star!
PARIS, France, December 11.-The
League of Nations Preparatory DiSarma-
ment Commission, in which the United
States has been participating. has sue
cesSfully terminated its five years Of ef-
fort to draw up q general disarmament
treaty. This draft will now be sent to
all interested governments, and it Is
considered certain that the League
Council. when 1t meets in January. win
at last set date for the general dis
armament conference. This date win
be either at the end of 1891 or early In
1854, probably the latter.
Great Britain, France and Japan have
ell expressed themselves Is well salts
4sd with the results obtained, but Rus
GiA and Italy are more critical, and
Count Won Bernstorff, for Germany, has
declared fatty that his government will
reject the draft as entirely inadequate.
Group Voting Noted.
TWO new political facts stood out
throughout these six weeks Of technical
negotiations. The first was that Ger
many, Russia, Italy, Hungary and Bull
garia voted together nearly on every
point, thus adumbrating the possibility
OF o coherent bloc composed of these
countries, fayoring q revision OF the
peace treaties. In the face of this new
situatton almost equally noteworthy was
the tendency Of France, Great Britain,
Japan and the United States to vote
together.
The second outstanding fact wa.
Germany's intimation that it intend,
b disregard the military clauses Of
the Versailles treaty unless the other
countries diSarm down to the German
level. This attitude together with
other German moves, characterized
rightly or wrongly as "obstructionism. :
brought Count Won Bernstorff a sting
ing rebuke from Lord Cecil, the Brit
1sh delegate, and was followed by the
adoption by the commission of a reSo-
luton that existing treaties must be
the basis of the future disarmament
conferences work. Five countries
Germany, Italy, Russia, Bulgaria and
Hungary - opposed this resolution
which was nevertheless passed.
Provisions Of Draft.
The principal provisions of the draft
The naval regulations of the Lon
don treaties are to be extended to all
powers. except that navies under 10O,-
600 tons will have full freedom to
transfer tonnage from one category To
another and small navies in general
will enjoy greater transfer privileges
than large.
Aviation win be limited on a basis
OF actual war airplanes, but full in
L..
commercial aIrplanes, which are con-
sidered useful auxiliaries to war air
planes.
In limiting armies, trained reserves
not in actual service will not be
counted. The length of compulsory
military service permissible under the
treaty viii be limited, but no duration
Is yet fixed.
Limitation by Budgets.
War material will be limited in ac-
cordance with budgetary expenditures
except in those countries like the United
States which prefer direct limitation
and will submit duly accredited figures
OF suppli-s and arms on hand.
Observance OF the treaty will be over
seen by a special permanent commits
sion of the League of Nations, to be
instituted with Russian. Turkish and
American collaboration.
The draft text fails to state on what
basis other than the existing treaties the
ratios of strength shall be established or
TO outline regions susceptible to re-
glonal agreements or to suggest ways
and means Of obtaining greater secur-
ity. All these vital points are being
left to the general conference.
Security Question Up.
The question of security, owing to the
attitude Of France and the status quo
group, Is certain to arouse much fur
ther discussion. This group is deter
mined TO resist measures which II
thinks would result in disarmfng the
status quo countries to the profit of
revisionist countries unless at the same
time some definite plan for mutual aid
against possible aggression is adopted.
This being the situation, some ex-
perienced observers feel that the confer
ence, If it succeeds at all, will result
merely in stabjlizing armaments at
about the present levels, leaving actual
reduction TO future conferences when
possibly the international situation will
be more propitious.