Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1932-06-14
ARMS CONFERENCE
/. SUDDENLY REVIVED
American Plan to Limit Num-
Der of Men on Duty Is
Considered.
BY PAUL SCOTT MOWRER.


BY Cable to The Star
GENEVA, June 1.-THE Disarmament
Conference here suddenly sprang to
life today The Air Commission met
The Steering Committee met. Edouard
Herriot. French premier; Ambassador
Hugh S. Gibson, chief American dele
gate: Ramsay Macdonald. British prime
minister; Dino Grand, Italian foreign
minister. and Rudolph Nadolny, Ger
man delegate exchanged calls and had
meals with one another.
Last night the American electives
plan, as previously outlined IN these
dispatches, was presented in the form
Of q note with tables to the French,
Italian, Jugoslav, Czechoslovak and
Polish delegations; that Is to say, to the
delegations most concerned. The Brit
ish had seen 1t previously and the Ger
mans are not directly affected.
Called Mere Suggestion.
Today Gibson and his colleague,
Minister Hugh r. Wilson, handed a
French translation Of the American plan
to Herriot with a verbal explanation.
The plan still will not formally be made
public. 1t is intended merely as help
full suggestion. However, the conclud-
ing paragraph of the American note
makes it clear it is not merely the
American delegation, but President
Hoover himself who is particularly In
terested in seeing the conference sue
coed along the line Of real reduction
in the number OF men under arms.
Budgetary limitation or abolition OF
certain weapons, II not accompanied by
reduction in the numbers OF men,
will scarcely be acceptable to the United
States, it Is said.
The reaction OF the various delega-
tons to the American plan Is somewhat
reserved The French, Poles and Jugo-
slavs seem to feel 1t Is unacceptable.
The British seem inclined to favor It,.
The Italians are noncommittal. The
French say it contains interesting ideas
but criticize its details.
Nations Views Outlined.
The situation of the conference ap-
pears meanwhile to be as follows: The
British, who have never believed much
in this conference and who tried twice
to provoke a postponement before 1t
convened, now seem eager to md
way to wind it up quickly and in a
manner which can be described to the
public as a success.
Macdonald and his foreign minister,
Sir John Simon, seem to have tried to
enlist French support to their project.
What they propose is to abolish as
much heavy armament as it is possible
to agree on; to effect to 10 per
cent reduction in armament budgets all
around, stabilize ornaments for 10
years at the present levels and make.
as among Europeans. some sort OF new
peace declaration destined to reassure
public opinion.
The French seem not to be averse
to this program. but they are skeptical
as to whether the British can succeed,
The United States feels it is entirely
inadequate.
Germany and Italy are frankly OPP
posed to the British program. Nadolny
handed Grandi yesterday a memoran-
dunn once more stating the German
viewpoint and he plans to make a
similar statement in the Steering Com
mittee late today
Experts say that sterilization Of
ornaments itself is q tremendous task,
requiring many weeks of work to organ
lie in detail.
(Copyright, 1922