Evening star., 1932-07-06
HOOVER ARMS PLAN
FACING LAST RITES
Plenty of 0ratoriCaI Flowers
to Be Used in Funeral at
Geneva ParIey.
BY CONSTANTINE BROWN.

The Hoover disarmament plan will
be buried with plenty of oratorical
flowers this week. Its chief pallbearer
will be Great Britain's foreign secre-
tary, Sir John Simon, and its grave
will be the pigeonhole Of the various
foreign Offices, war Offices and admiral
ties.
While every delegate at the Geneva
Disarmament Conference will give SOL
emn pledges that, after the Presidents
proposals are carefully investigated and
considered by the interested countries,
the conference, which is to be ad-
journed only temporarily. will resume
in the Fall to take final decisions about
disarmament, those initiated believe
this week will witness the end of the
first phase of the Disarmament Con-
ference.
1t undoubtedly will reconvene, but
not until the political and financial
troubles of Europe have been settled.
Whether a full American delegation
Will dlbCA4Q a6aAA - AhCobAOAAdSACg A.
viii depend entirely on whether Con-
gress will be willing to vote the neces-
sary appropriations next December.
The funds of the delegation are very
low and after the necessary money has
been spent on the return fare there
viii be next to nothing left in the
treasury of the American delegation
Should the arms conference meet
on ~ hafo~a nA1HV1ataor ryi1l he
Sible for the American chief delegate
Hugh Gibson, and Minister Hugh VIII
son, who are stationed in Brussels and
Bern, respectively. to attend the meet
ing without much extra expense for
the American taxpayer.
Seek Own Solution.
In the meantime, the European pow
ers will endeavor to readjuSt and find
solution for their important political
and economic problems The most i'm
portant question Is the settlement of
the reparation question.
The stumbling block at Lausanne to-
day is not the matter of whether Ger
meny can pay $600,000,000 to $l,000,-
100000. When the French agreed to
reduce the German reparation debt
from about $4,000. 900 900, which Ger
Young plan, by 80 per cent Of that
sum. the few hundred millions which
are apparently involved today in the
controversy between the two countries
are of no consequence.
According to well informed quarters,
a compromise around the figure OF
S750, ,000,000 could be easily reached.
The chief obstacle to such compro-
mise is the fact France does not know
whether, after she has made such
drastic reduction, the United States
Government would be willing to make
a corresponding reduction Of Frances
debt to this country.
The British and Italians seem to be
confident the United States will be
willing to reduce their war debts sub
stantially on the plea that they are
not in position to pay what they
had undertaken when they agreed to
the respective debt-funding agree
ments. Premier Herriot is by no means
convinced France will receive similar
treatment. France is afraid that. after
she has sliced Germany's debt by 80
per cent. she will be told by the United
States that she can pay almost the full
amount she owes this country on the
basis that. If she can afford to spend
billions on her army, navy and air
force. she can also meet the other OBJ
legations.
Rejection Surprises Many.
On 9ooourt of this situation, it is in