Evening star., 1932-06-19
BY SIR AUSTEN CHAMBERLAIN,


Former Chancellor of the British Excheauer
and Secretary Of State for Foreign Affairs
T ONDON-The questions Of policy
and principle propounded in the
recent speeches of the principal
IL delegates to the International
Conference on Disarmament at
Geneva raise far greater issues than
were at first contemplated.
Let me say something about two OF
the most vital of those questions-the
German demand for equality and the
French demand for the creation OF an
armed international force and Of addi-
tional guarantees of security. I do not
place them in opposition to each other,
for they are not inconsistent. and both
are of first-class importance. 1t may
well be that the conference will group
and regroup itself more than once In
the course of the discussions to which
they will give rise.
The German claim was thus described
by Sir John Simon to the House of
Commons:
Germany said at the beginning, We
were invited to join this Disarmament
Conference and we come into 1t as a
member of equal status with every
body else. We are in fact member OF
the League of Nations and member
Of the Council of the League Of Ma
tons Now Germany says, When dis
cuSsing the question of what should be
! the level amount of our armamentS in
the future, there is question CT status
involved and Germany is not the only
part of the world where questions OF
status have their importance"
interpretations Differ.
This is obviously true, for the exist
| ing size and character of Germany'S S
I visions of the treaty Of Versailles and
therefore limitations imposed by the
victors of the vanquished as condi-
ton of peace and not the result Of a
general convention which prescribes
limits for the forces of all the sigma
tory nations This, as Sir John said,
is not a technical question, far from
it, it is a political question OF funda-
mental importance. It Is not primarily,
at any rate, question OF amount or OF
quality 1t is the question upon what
basis the limitation Of German arma-
ments is to rest in future, and Ger
many's claim is that If she is to give
her Signature to any disarmament con-
vention which may result from the
Geneva conference she should give 1t
as an equal
It must, I think, be admitted that
here we are confronted with an ambigu-
GUS phrase which is capable of being
interpreted in two very different ways.
Sir John Simon interprets it as mean
ing equality of status; it might equally
mean actual equality Of force with those
nations with which the German Reich
Is comparable, particularly France.
If the former is the meaning which
the Germans attach to 1t, would go
all possible lengths to meet them.
not only understand the feeling which
moves them but I sympathize with it.
It was not the least of the merits OF
the conference of Locarno that on GER
tain important matters 1t substituted
an agreement freely made and volun-
tarily undertaken for pre-existing obli-
cations compulsorily imposed. The
| further that course Is followed, the
better it will be for US all.
Spurns Other Suggestion.
But the second Interpretation IS a
wholly different thing and If the phrase
Is meant to convey the second meaning
of which it is capable, I must say at
once that in my view at least the con-
dition is quite unacceptable. This sug-
gestion was put forward by the German