Evening star., 1932-04-01
Arms Limitation and Invention.

For nearly tWenty-three hundred years
q battle has been waged between arms
ard armor in naval warfare. Methods
of resisting missiles directed against
ships were successfully followed by in
crease in the penetgat.ye power Of Shots
followed in turn by Improvements in the
coatings applied to warcraft TO ward off
the blows directed against them. The
earliest efforts to protect the sea fighters
from the onslaught Of the enemy are
attributed to Archimides. who, about
$50 B. c., devised mats of ropes sus-
pended by brass chains for the preserva-
ton of the "Syracusah" Of King Hero
That was virtually the beginning of
competition that has not yet ended
The most recent contribution to this
succession of missile-resisting armor
and armor- penetrating missiles is Just
announced at London. British scien-
fists have produced a new type Of pro-
jectile that is capable of piercing twelve
inches of the latest type of arfnorplate
at range of ten miles in one two
hundredth of a second.
This disclosure comes at a time Nhen
international conferences are in prog
ress for the reduction of arfnaments
The makers of combative and defensive
materials have not ceased their EN-
deavors to make war more deadly. Lab
orstories are continuing to find lethal
gases of greater potency and certainty,
and at the same time to perfect means
of resistance against this form of on
slaught. Arms makers are inventing
guns that will fire a greater number of
shots in minute than were ever fired
before, and with greater range and ef-
fectiveness, with a reduction of weapon
weights to permit the arming OF assault
or shock troops with them.
International agreements on the score
of reductions of arms do not include
suspension of experiments The num-
bers of battleships and auxiliaries may
be reduced, but the endeavors of the
scientists and manufacturers persist to
make more ef1icient those that are
permitted by treaty to be maintained,
and there is no hope that they can ever
be checked. Airships Of greater and
still greater range Of operation and
capable of conducting offensive oper-
ations are being developed while
weapons for their resistance and de-
struction are being sought and pro-
duced.
The abolition of war as a means OF
settling disputes is earnestly desired by
humanity, but the search for weapons
and means of defense continues In a
paradoxical accompaniment of this en-
deavor. 1t has been declared that the
next war will be SO terrible in its
destructiveness that the world will be
a shambles, over wider area than ever
before known. 1t is this prospect that
impels the peoples of all nations to hope
for relief, and yet the process of
preparation for that catastrophe con-
tinues
DistruSt Of the good faith of even
those nations that are foremost in the
endeavor to find dependable, lasting
formula of peace keeps the Laboratories
and the mills at work in the race be-
tween the agencies of attack and of de-
tense. Preparedness" is said to be
the surest protection against assault.
The fundamental evil lies in the fact
that defensive preparedness is COM
petitive and a breeder of suspicion
Every such advance In potential often
sive warfare such as the invention of
a shell that will pierce the stoutest and
thickest armor induces a counter
advance in protection, lest an advantage
will rest with the latest development.
Arms limitation, to be actually effective,
must include the suspension of expert
ments. and that is contrary to human
nature.
l.