Evening star., 1932-10-19
ARMS CONFERENCE .
DATA IS PREPARED
subcommittees at Geneva
Undeterred by Dispute
Over Location.
BY CONSTANTINE BROWN.

In spite OF the TACT the German
French disagreement regarding equality
in armaments has not yet been solved.
and that as a result of this controversy
the Disarmament Conference still ap-
pears endangered, the subcommittee at
Geneva are working full time, according
to reports received by the State De-
partment, preparing the necessary data
for the November meetings.
AS far as is known at present, there
will be two proposals before the gen.
eral commission which meets late in
November One is the Hoover one
third slash, the other is the Herriot
plan of drastic reductions conditional to
guarantees of security.
For the present, however, the sub
committees are working at the very
important problem of when is SOL
dier not a soldier?" That Is to say,
can only the man who wears a uniform
and whose name is entered in the Of
fetal army lists be considered a soldier,
or is every citizen who receives even a
partial military training fighting man.
Differ on Soldiers"
The Germans and the Italians main
tain that only those who belong to a
recognized army unit can be considered
as soldiers, while the French claim that
all the members of athletic societies
and semi-rlilitary organizations such as
the FaScists, the Stahlhelm and the
Nazis form part of the national de-
fence forces of every country.
The Geneva subcommittee are work.
ing at present trying to solve this prob
lem and their findings will be submitted
to the meeting of the bureau of the dis
armament conference which will begin
working early in November.
This bureau is composed of the rep
resentativeS of seven big nations and
seven minor nations who, together with
the six heads of the subcommittee, will
discuss the findings of the subCommit-
tees and reTort them with whatever ad-
ditional plans for disarmament may be
suggested by other nations to the gen.
eral commission, which is scheduled to
meet between November 20 and 80.
November to be Busy.
Thus. the month of November will
be a busy one for the American repre-
sentatives at Geneva. Early in Eoven-
ber they will have to attend the meet
ing of the bureaus where they will
have to contend with the controversial
subjects of soldiers and semi soldiers;
about the middle of the month, pre-
sumably between November II and IA
the much heralded Lytton Manchurian
report will come UP and although
America is not officially involved in
those discussing, the State Department
is more vitality concerned with the deci-
sion of the Leagues Committee than
with any other work of the League.
Finally. toward the end of the month
the American delegation, headed this
time by Norman Davis, will have to
fight for the Hoover plan as against
the other plans which may be brought
up in addition to the Herriot arms
slash proposals.
All reports from abroad indicate there
still is a possibility of getting the Ger
mans and the French together to
discuss the German claim fer equality
In armaments. The British government
Is maneuvering today to get final
statement regarding that subject from
either of the two countries. For the
time being both the French and the
Germans say that they are willing to
get together and discuss this problem
provided that an adequate place for a
meeting can be found. The French
stand pat on their proposal that the
meeting place should be Geneva, which
is considered by them more as symbol
than a town. The Germans object to
Geneva just because it is symbol and
maintain that such conversations as
the British are proposing must be held
in a place not so much permeated with
the French point of view and SO sus-
ceptible to French propaganda.
Discussion Is Avoided.
The matter of choosing town for
a meeting between France, Germany,
Great Britain and Italy really should
not meet with such insurmountable diff
culties if the directly interested parties
were actually willing to talk business.
But as the situation stands today, it
appears that neither the French nor
the Germans are anxious to discuss
thoroughly their controversies.
The Germans are waiting for Herriot's S
next move, while the French are Won
dering what is going to happen to the
Won Papen government at the German
elections, which will be held on No
vember 6. The result of the American
presidential election plays no insig-
nificant role in this European merry
go-round, because on Americas point of
view regarding an eventual mixture of
this country in Europe's affairs de-
pends much of the future movements of
France and GERMANY