The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1932-06-28
FRANCE SCCRNS
HOOVER ARMS
CUT PROPOSAL
u. S. Must Change Policy
Before SIaSheS Will Be
Considered.
BY WILLIAM PHILIP SIMMS
Scripps-Howard Foreign Editor

WASHINGTON, June 28-Unless
the United States reverses its policy
OF a dozen years and manifests a
Willingness to bear it's share of the
burden of maintaining international
peace, President Hoover's drastic
plan to cut the worlds land, sea and
air ornaments one-third is doomed.
Acclaimed by the world as a GAL
lant gesture full Of promise, any one
of six leading military powers of the
world-Britain, France, Italy, Japan,
Russia and the United States-can
stop 1t in its tracks by refusing to
disarm. And France, for one, will
not disarm without security.
An international armed force for
the maintenance of peace" Premier
Edouard Herriot of France insists
lis the only feasible solution to dis
armament. Any other solution is
pure chimera."
Points to Japanese Invasion
Only the extreme left wing in
France-that is to say the Com
enthusiastically support disarma-
ment without security. The right, CT
course, are more insistent upon it,
even, than the Herriot group. France.
said Andre Maginot, Tardieu's
minister Of war, must hold on to
her present means of defense until
there is a world agreement to pun
1sh aggressors with the armed forces
OF the combined powers.
France now feels the worlds peace
machinery is too weak to prevent
aggression. She holds Japan has
proved the case. China, a vast
country of 450,OOO0O0 people, lust
has been invaded and robbed of one
of her richest provinces by a little
nation of 65,O00,000, yet China and
Japan both are members of the
League and Signatories of the KEEL
logg pact outlawing war.
France does not hold that the
league and the pact are worthless.
She clings to both as useful. She
does maintain, however, that they
DO not go far enough, and that
both are weakened by the aloofness
OF the United States.
Lists 6-Point Program
A Would-be aggressor, she asserts,
will not stop just because of a piece
OF paper, but will stop if it knows
in advance that it will be bounced
by an invincible international force
Here is the present French gov
ernment's program as opposed to
the Hoover plan:
l. Reinforcement of the League
OF Nations to the point where it
not only can, but will, enforce peace
or put down an aggreSsor.
2. Simultaneous reduction and
limitation of all ornaments under
the supervision of the league.
3. Observation-Disclosures of aviation.
civil and military, under the con-
troll Of the league.
Compromise Is Possible
4. Observation-Disclosures of all rail-
way and steamship lines necessary
to the mobilization and transport of
troops.
5. Manufacture and sale of all
war material by private concerns
to be strictly forbidden.
6. Appointment of an interna-
tional commission to supervise the
carrying out of these provisions.
Some sort Of compromise between
the Hoover and Herriot views may
be possible. There might be a mora
forum on ornaments and some
slight reductions here and there.
both in arms and in armament bud
gets.
But unless the United States joins
the League or associates itself far
more intimately with the other
powers than it is now doing, the
Hoover program, however desirable
it may be, will lag, according to this
writer's information