Evening star., 1932-06-05
BY ALBIN E. JOHNSON.

| ~ ENEVA-A determined drive
against the so-called military.
T naval and air experts" into
~ whose hands the Geneva Dis
armament Conference has
fallen, is developing, and. as a result
OF this and new foreign policy being
encouraged by liberal Left elements in
France, the prospects of some measure
of success in the worlds initial effort
to limit and reduce instruments OF war
are again encouraging.
After the first two months Of political
maneuvering, the conference went into
commissions" largely because of the
uncertainty of the French elections, the
departure of Secretary Stimson, the
domestic troubles of Chancellor Bruen-
ing and Premier Ramsay MacDonalc'S
illness. Eight weeks have elapsed and
the commissions have made practically
no progress. A fortnight ago there was
an actual danger of the conference col
lapsing. Many delegations reduced
their numbers by half in the interests
of economy-and because it no longer
took a formidable group of admirals,
generals and such to hold their posi-
tionS intact.
Three Principles Accepted.
The conference had gotten off to a
fairly good start, largely as result OF
the American proposal for qualitative
disarmament. Three principles were
accepted, namely: That the present
conference was to be only the first and
a series of disarmament conferences
were to follow; that a serious reduction
in existing ornaments was to be made
Immediately; that offensive weapons
were to be the first to be abolished,
either through scrapping them or inter-
Matchmaking them.
Urged forward by formidable public
opinion thousands Of petitions, tele-
grams, resolutions representing the
voices of tens of millions of persons,
poured in on Geneva, the political
delegates reacted definitely. British.
Germans, Americans, Italians-and
even the French pledged themselves
to obtaining both limitation and reduc-
ton of the worlds $4,000, 100000 annual
armaments burden.
Then came the German elections,
with swing toward Hitlerism. The
French elections followed, with an un-
Stimson's departure, MacDonald's in
disposition. Tardieu's fall from power
and the Japanese ramp in Manchuria
and Shanghai-and disarmament was
almost forgotten. That is, except by
the experts"
As stated before, the experts" OF
Geneva are army, navy and air force
officers largely. They were called In to
give advice as to how the political de-
cisions taken by the conference could
be put into effect. But it has proved
tantamount to calling group OF meat
packers and butchers together to en-
courage the spread Of vegetariantsm.
They steadfastly refuse to legislate
themselves and their colleagues out Of
jobs by reduction of armies and navies.
"Offensive Armament"
Having decided that offensive arma-
ments" should be abolished. the con-
ference asked the experts" to define
offensive weapons. So the experts set
about to first define defensive forti-
flcations." Having decided that en-
battlenlents built out of seven solid feet
of concrete and steel composed fort
ress they argued that only gun ca
pable of hurting 300 pounds of chilled
steel a distance Of about Is or Is miles
could be considered offensive. Then,
having decided that invasion of a
country only threatened the civilian
population" i was argued that battlec
ships and nbmarna G9E lot t6kM