Evening star., 1932-06-05
DRIVE AGAINST "EXPERTS''
DEVELOPS AT GENEVA
Prospect of Some Measure of Success in
Limiting Armaments of Nations
Accordingly Is Remarked.

sive, but defensive. Presumably only
boat which could enter a river was
offensive. Again an aircraft carrier
wasn't considered offensive, but the
sirplanes which it could launch against
an enemy might be. And so on, ad
infinitum.
Commenting upon the situation, Lord
Cecil, Europe's most able and sincere
advocate of disarmament, who refused.
after six years service on the Leagues S
preparatory disarmament commission,
to represent Britain at the present con-
ference. declares that the time has
come for public opinion again to be
marshaled-this time against the ".ex-
perts."
The present tendency was natural,
almost inevitable" said Lord Cscil in
an interview. 1T was clear from the
very outset Of the disarmament discus
sions that if the matter was to be left
to the experts nothing would be done
That is no charge against them They
are, I am sure, most able conscientious
and highly instructed gentlemen But
just look at their training! They are
charged with the duty of advising their
governments as to the preparatio
necessary to insure, as far as possible,
victory In any war in which their coun-
try may be engaged. Much of their
time is spent in thinking out new i'm
provements in armaments and extorting
from their ministries of finance the
sums necessary for carrying them out
They think necessarily, and properly,
all the time in terms of war and Of
victory. What officer. at any rate of
the larger countries would ever be sat
isfied in planning to stave off defeat?"
Objective of Conference.
The objective of the Disarmament
Conference, according to Lord Cecil, is
not to secure victory for any country,
but to make the outbreak of war less
probable. Since the experts can think
only in terms Of theoretical superiority,
it is absolutely necessary to remove the
conference from the realm of material
to political factors.
Positive limitation Of ornaments will
put an end to competition, which Ger
tainly is a fruitful cause of war;" con-
tinued Lord Cecil. Secondly, a gen.
eral reduction In ornaments burdens
will lessen the financial strain upon
nations and diminish the economic un-
rest which we see all around us; third
ly, by abolishing those types of arma-
ments which make sudden and over
whelming aggression possible we d.
minish international fears and suspicion,
which are the chief dangers to peace
at the present time"
1t does not necessitate experts" to
determine what are aggressive arma-
ments, according to Lord Cecil. For
six years in the Leagues Preparatory
Disarmament Commission, and for six
weeks during the present conference,
the experts" have tried futilely to de-
eide which armaments were really "ag-
gressive" when applied to their own
military organizations. At the Versail-
les Peace Treaty Conference it took the
allied military experts just "a hours to
decide, unanimously, what were ag-
gressive armaments so far as Germany
"a defeated nation-was concerned.
According to Lord Cecil and others,
the victorious powers should now apply
to themselves the same formula which
they enforced upon Germany-namely,
those five classes of ornaments which
at Paris were forbidden to the van
quished powers, i.e., warships over TO-
600 tons; submarines, tanks, mobile
guns over los nm. caliber, and all
naval and military aircraft-these
should now be scrapped by every coun-
try which has pledged itself never to
resort z o foEcs p b th2 ssss'ssueQs e y