Evening star., 1932-02-21
SELFISHNESS OF NATIONS
AT ARMS PARLEY Barred
European Proposals Revealed as Effort
to Exploit World Demand for
Armament Reductions.

France and Germany, and to exploit
! this situation. But this possibility Is
out of the question as long as France
and her allies retain the present mill
| tary advantage.
It is manifest, therefore that German
and Italian policies are concerned with
disarmament, not primarily with the
| idea of reducing their own armaments,
but bringing the French down to their
own level. leaving to the future the
question of the use of equal strength.
France and her allies, for their part,
are interested in giving the League
superstate powers. not primarily in the
| interests of disarmament, but to CO.
ordinate the present situation chal-
lenged by both Germany and Italy.
Nominally, both Anglo-Saxon powers
advocate disarmament without regard to
political questions. Actually however,
the British proposals are limited to re-
ductions of the kind of arms that are
most dangerous to British security. and
even to the nations actual existence;
namely, the submarine and the air
plane.
British Aims Explained.
Similarly. the British concern for
the abolition of the battleship Is due
to the double fact that capital ships
are too costly for the British purse un-
der present conditions, and to the fre-
quency of naval bases which permit the
use Of smaller ships with equal ef-
fectiveness. Japan supports the aboll-
ton of battleships and airplane carriers
by reason of the fact that the objective
of all Japanese policy is the supremacy
of Asiatic waters and the elimination
of all craft permitting the approach OF
other sea powers
BY contrast. the United States advo-
Gates retention of the capital ship Of
large tonnage because of her few wide
ly scattered naval bases and Japan in
SistS upon the submarine as a defen-
Sive weapon best adapted to her own
strategic problems.
Thus, in fact all three projects for
disarmament, when examined at close
range, are not actual disarmament pro-
grams at all, but are attempts to use
the world demand for disarmament to
reinforce the existing national situa-
ton.
The Russian project is the most trans
parent illustration of this spirit, since
the chief purpose of bolshevism Is the
overthrow of the existing order within
other countries The first step Is the
removal of armies and navies, which
would leave only police barriers to the
spread of Red revolution. 1t was the
collapse of the Russian army which
opened the way for the Red triumph in
Russia. Only a similar elimination Of
the armed forces of capitalistic states
can give the Communist masses a
chance to repeat the Soviet achieve
ment everywhere.
The sum total is that Americans must
perceive that all of the humanitarian
and lofty moral principles so far uttered
at Geneva represent in fact no change in
policies of countries represented there,
but are attempts to realize the objectives
of the several nations now based upon
military or naval strength by means OF
disarmament programs advantageous
to themselves and restrictive to their
rivals or present enemies.
All Powers Determined.
Great Britain does not even consider
resigning her claim to the two-power
naval standard in Europe. France does
not accept any notion of the modifica-
ton of existing frontiers Nor is Ger
many less determined to attain treaty
revision. So far the conference pro-
grams are little more than merry game
of realizing by reduction" what has
been obtained or is still sought by arma-
mentS.
Precisely as at Paris where the VIC
torious nations employed the doctrine
of self determination for the partition
of the defeated states, so all Euro
pean powers now are seeking to exploit
the doctrine of disarmament similarly
to attain national ends. Meantime.
there is a clear perception that actual
achievement along this line is impos-
sible. leading to a growing emphasis
on humanizing the means of war.
But this, as the speedy scrapping Of
the restrictive Hague conventions dur
ing the World War demonstrated, is
ultimate futility. Thus, once the ma
tional statements are all made state
of deadlock is bound to ensue. Artemus
Wards declaration that the rebellion
must be put down if it took all of his
wife's relations" Is paralleled by the
determination of every European state
to achieve disarmament If it takes the
last gun or the last division Of its
neighbors.
fCopyriRht. 1922