Evening star., 1932-12-18
MISFORTUNE DOGS STEPS
! OF DISARMAMENT PARLEY
Pushed Into Background by War Debts
Issue After Long Series of
Difficult Obstacles.

not consent to any decisions of an in
ternational arms conference.
Put concretely, there are at least q
hundred millions of people In Europe
| for whom the status quo Is identical
with peace. And there Is an equal
number for whom treaty revision is the
major issue. But the status quo powers
are armed and the revision states COM
paratively unarmed. Germany is for
hidden by her treaties to maintain mill
tary forces equal to the French. Italy
Is too poor to build feet equal to the
French.
France and her allies will not there
fore agree that Germany shall be equal
on land and Italy on the sea while such
equality can be used to carry out pol
icies menacing to herself and to all the
status quo nations which are her al
lies And when in this deadlock Great
Britain and the United States appear
urging disarmament, they are instantly
confronted by the demand Of France
and her allies that they promise in re-
turn for French reduction British and
American guarantees against all evil
consequences Of such reduction. At once
the deadlock becomes triangular. Ger
many and her associates refuse to ne
gotiate until their equality is conceded,
France and her allies decline to yield
while their security is not guaranteed.
Britain and America, while urging re-
duction, decline to assume any reSpon-
sibility.
1t was precisely in this fashion that
the f1ve-poWer conference in London
broke down. France refused to concede
Italian parity unless Britain and the
United States agreed to Mediterranean
Locarno. Italy refused to sign any,
thing that did not concede parity and
America rejected all suggestions Of re-
sponsibility. And between the adjourn
ment of the Naval Conference in Lon
don and the assembling of the Arms
Conference in Geneva no adjustment
of the Franco-Italian dispute proved
possible.
The Americans went to the London
conference refusing to believe that the
Franco-ltalian dispute in advance made
impossible any f1ve-power adjustment.
In London they long insisted that prog
resS was possible. Even when adjourn
ment came they persisted in the asser-
ton that the Franco-Italian affair
would shortly be adjusted and Italy and
France would subscribe to the three
power agreement. And precisely the
same optimism explained the American
official attitude toward the Franco
German issue at the present Arms Con-
ference.
Results In Deadlock.
Since the collapse Of the WilSOnian
doctrines, France has never ceased to
put security above all else, while the
United States has insisted that there
was no connection between disarmament
and security and American RESPONSE
bility must not be engaged in Europe
Inc result has been deadlock. France
has not achieved security and America
has seen every disarmament proposal
blocked. But what has been odd is the
fact that the peoples Of both countries
have remained convinced that in the
end they would convert those of the
other nation.
Washington, too. has been under the |
that in some fashion |
the debt issue might be used to inf1u- |
ence the armament debates. But France ,,
would refuse debt payments without hes
ltation when these seemed to her dis
aStrouS without even considering the |
pursuit of better money terms by con-
cessions in the shape of military reduc- |
t1ons. As the Americans refuse to Join |
the questions of disarmament and Sc
curlty, the French decline to combine |
those OF debts and ornaments.
Briefly, in any disarmament confer |
ence the United States has to choose
between taking sides with one of the |
contesting groups Of European nations |
and seeing the eventual rejection of all |
OF its proposals. For disarmament, |
which in the United States seems an |
end In itself. in Europe appears merely |
as a detail in the struggle between ma
tions and the clash between national |
policies.
The story Of the Geneva Arms Con-
terence is no more than q repetition |
OF the tale of London and of Washing
ton, SO far as continental European
countries were concerned. Europe talked |
politics, America discussed disarma-
ment. The former tried to bring Amer
lea into its political projects, the latter
tried to convert Europe to its disarma-
ment program. But progress was i'm
possible at all times and in the end the
has occurred.
Nor does the recent consent OF Ger
many to return to Geneva alter the
situation. No compromise has been
reached on the basic issue. All that
has been agreed to Is that the irrecon-
cilable demands Of Germany for
equality and of France for security shall
appear on the agenda. Thus Germany
returns to Geneva, but the Arms Con-
ference remains in the state of deadlock
which has endured from the outset.
(Copyrisht 1922