Evening star., 1932-10-11
CASTLE FORECASTS
GRADUAL. ARMS CUT
Official, Forum Speaker, Sees
Progress With Growth of
Stability.

Declaring new chapter in disarma-
ment was being written at Geneva, Will
liam r. Castle, jr.. Undersecretary OF
State, a speaker in the National Radio
Forum, sponsored by The Evening Star
and broadcast over coast-to-coast net
work of the National Broadcasting Co.,
predicted last night that continued dis
armament will progress with the growth.
of international stability.
Americans who have been disappoint-
ed thus far in the progress at Geneva,
Mr. Castle reminded, must be patient
and bear in mind the complexities of
the problem.
The reduction of ornaments is not
a Single event, but a process" Mr..
Castle stated after outlining the three
major postwar steps taken at Geneva.
I'VE must not forget. for example.
that international conferences do not
1egislate as do parliamentary major
unanimous consent. Among free ma
tions no other principle is conceivable, ="
he said.
Reviews Conferences.
The Undersecretary reviewed the
Washington and London conferences of
1921-1922 and $780, which resulted in
naval reductions on the part of five
great powers. and said the Geneva Dis
armament Conference is much more
complex, with 60 nations present and
defense problems of land. sea and air
involved
The agreement of the Geneva Con-
ference to base its future negotiations
on President Hoovers proposal for a
reduction of approximately one-third in
all armaments, Mr.. Castle said. put the
delegates on a firm foundation. He
commended the decisions to prohibit
air attacks against civilians, to limit
the caliber of offensive guns and to re-
strict the size of tanks as forward steps
which will rob war of some of its ter
Tors.
Hopefulness Expressed.
Mr.. Castle expressed hopefulness the
converse tions now going on in London
to devise a scheme for further naval
limitations will have a successful out
come. He said the bureau of confer
ence, consisting of representatives of 20
nations. is preparing for the general
meeting to be held next January by
drafting new plans for the reduction
OF land forces.
We must now. of course, close our
eyes to the difficulties. so far as prog
ress in disarmament is concerned,
inherent in the present troubled politi-
cal and economic situation throughout
the world" Mr.. Castle continued.
Where men or nations are frightened
or discouraged they do not think as
clearly. We can only hope that all
nations will realize that this reduction
In useless expenditure for armament
will be long step toward economic
recovery, which in turn will let the SUM-
clouds OF depression and of suspicion"
Text of His Address.
Mr.. Castles address follows in full:
Every thinking person knows that
one OF the causes of the World War was
the competition in armaments, which
was growing more and more intense.
This was both the result and the cause
OF suspicion-the result since nation
fearing trouble from its neighbor felt
1t necessary to build up defensive arna-
ments; the cause since increase of
armament aroused suspicion where
there perhaps had been none before.
For long time before the war the
American Government had realized the
danger Of this competition in arnna-
ment. After the war, with our determi-
nation to take every measure to prevent
further disasters, the Government as
one important step in this direction,
turned earnestly to the consideration of
the best method to bring about world
wide armament reduction. This was
clearly necessary, both to prevent
growth of international suspicion and
for the sake Of turning into construc-
tive channels the huge sums being vast
ed In armament. This economic reason
is even more compelling today. The
U0rId sDepSs annually over four billion
for armament. Can it afford to spend
these hundreds of millions. good part
unnecessary, unproductively?
Time to Take Stock.
The present moment is a good time
for us to take stock of what has already
been done and to attempt to trace the
probable lines of progress in the future.
This Is true because at the moment,
while the Disarmament Conference is
in recess, gathering appointed by the
conference and consisting of represent
atives of some 20 nations is sitting in