Evening star., 1932-03-16
Geneva.

ference will go into adjournment for a
period of fifteen days over the Easter
holidays Its work for the past three
weeks has been confined to the COM
mittee phase, with technical detail alb
sorbing the bulk of the delegates
thought and energy. Five key branches
Of Geneva's problem are under consid-
Grafton in committees whose names
designate their respective tasks-politi-
/ cal, military, naval, aviation and bud
| getary.
To subcommittees in each case have
been transferred those multifarious de-
tails, mostly technical in character,
with which the disarmament problem
bristles. In these subordinate bodies
the experts are having their innings
the soldiers, the sailors and the aviators
whose highly specialized knowledge
justifies their presence and their need
at Geneva.
mo doubt objections can be made
| by technical experts" said Viscount
Cecil at Geneva the other day, adding
IF technical expert cannot make OBJ
iections, he can make nothing" That
is the view of the disarmament idealist.
But experts, who probably do not object
to being called practical idealists, are
| vital in these incalculable days. Any
scheme of disarmament negotiated with
out expert military and naval advice
would be the last thing this country
would or could afford to accept.
I 1t is too early to predict what the
ultimate outcome Of the Geneva con-
ference is going to be. Its final findings
are not expected before the beginning
of Summer. But there is already con-
currence Of view in virtually all con-
ference quarters that the result will be
positive and not negative, that from the
months Of deliberation convention
Of some kind will result.
Perhaps-indeed, almost certainly
it will be a convention that falls short
of the far-reaching hopes Of men and
women who would have Rome built
| in a day, the millennium by special de-
livery. II there emerges from Geneva
an agreement to ban chemical and bac-
THEOLOGICAL warfare, the proposal upon
which there has been q maximum of
agreement, a concrete and constructive
step will have been achieved. 1t will be
step possibly of even greater psyche
| logical value than Of practical utility,
for 1t will register advance, not retreat,
! in the tedious march upon which the
nations have embarked. RealistS have
always been conscious that disarma-
ment progress would be process
marked by slow stages and by more than
one conference.
One will not be wide Of the mark in
concluding that the Geneva Political
Committee Is the one in which the
largest share Of accomplishment will
have to be recorded if achievement in
purely military and naval directions IS
to be attained. Security Committee"
would have been a more graphic name
for the body, upon the creation OF which
the French mainly insisted The French
thesis is that unless through the League
| of Nations or otherwise France and
other countries can be guaranteed Sc
curity against aggression they will con-
tinue to rely on their arms. The con-
tention is fundamental to any solution
of Geneva's problems unless the French
recede from 1t, of which there Is little
probability.
An essential to a solution, too, is
Germanys demand for equality in the
right to arm. The Reich Is standing
firm for the pledge which, the Germans
insist, was given them when they con-
sented in the treaty Of Versailles to
disarmament OF their country. Ger
many is not asking today for authority
to arm TO the extent that France and
other European neighbors are armed.
If for no other reason, the Reich's
finances would make such a thought
ludicrous.
But the Germans insist they will be
satisfied with nothing less than con-
vention which declares, in theory at
least, that she stands as an equal
among equals in respect Of the privilege
to maintain a national defense Of her
own ordering within the framework OF
internationally agreed limitation.
Many ripples will dimple the waters
of Lake Geneva before the French and
German political theses are reconciled
or disposed Of.