Evening star., 1932-06-23
A Demand for Disarmament.

about to wind up in blaze OF futlllty,
President Hoover has come forward
with a sweeping proposal to reduce
land. sea and air armamentS by hori-
zontal cut Of one-third Of all existing
establishments. Twenty-six powers at
Geneva up to last night had assured
Ambassador Gibson that the Presidents
plan meets with their approval
Most of these nations do not count
for much in the naval and military
realm. The success or failure Of the
Hoover program depends on the atti-
tudes Of Great Britain, France, Italy
and Japan.
The reception 1t encounters in those
respective quarters is a mixed one.
Only Italy goes along wholeheartedly
with the American scheme France and
Japan are openly hostile. Great Britain
is cool toward it.
Whether the Presidents proposals are
eventually carried into effect or are
doomed to remain grand but futile
gesture. the motives which inspire them
reflect not only his own ardent desire
to promote world economic recovery
through disarmament, but the senti-
ment Of the American people
While it favors reduction of arma-
ments. this country in its overwhelming
ma jority is invincibly committed to the
doctrine that national defense must
be maintained at all costs Whatever
the necessities for retrenchment in
Government expenditure, the United
States cannot afford to cheesepare on
its Army, Navy and air force to a point
where the Nations security would be
imperiled.
President Hoover happily does not
suggest that the United States should
slash its defensive establishment in any
manner that would endanser our funda-
mental requirements. The third re-
duction in which he asks all powers
to join would be relative and mutual"
We would reduce in all categories of
arms only proportionately with other
countries. The President would abolish
all tanks, chemical warfare and large
mobile guns. He would reduce by one
third all land armies over and above
the strength needed to maintain in
ternal order Obviously this would not
apply to the United States Army, which
is already down to the bone.
Mr.. Hoover would wipe out all
bombing planes and illegalize lombard
ment from the air. He would revise ex-
isting naval treaties 50 that each power
would have a third fewer battleships
than now. This would cut British and
American battleships from fifteen to
ten each and leave Japan six or seven.
Treaty tonnage in aircraft carriers,
cruisers and destroyers would be re-
duced by one fourth and submarines by
one-third. with no power having more
than $4,000 tons of undersea craft.
The average citizen will be less inter-
ested in these various technical pro-
posals than in President Hoover's under
lying purpose in submitting them. The
time has come" he says. when We
should cut through the brush and adopt
some broad and definite method OF re-
ducing the overwhelming burden Of
armament which now lies upon the toll
ers of the world. This would be the
most important world step that could
be taken to expedite economic recovery"
The President declares that his prof.
ect would save the people Of the world
from ten to fifteen billion dollars during
the next ten years" The United States
share of this vast sum would be two
billion dollars. Those are figures which
talk and which Americans can under
stand. They will not fail to impress
the country with the value Of the Pres
idents proposals wholly apart from
their meritorious humanitarian char
acter.
The United States. immune from
those international controversies which
necessarily beset the rest of the world,
can afford to contemplate disarmament
in a spirit Of detachment to which less
fortunate countries cannot bring them
selves.