Evening star., 1933-05-10
WORLD SITUATION
IS HELD IMPROVED
Roosevelt ParIeys Believed
to Presage Success of
Arms Conference.
BY CONSTANTINE BROWN.

A very distinct improvement in the
international situation Is considered to
have taken place Is . result Of Great
Britain's acceptance Of the tariff truce
offered to the world by President Roose-
welt 10 days ago.
With this hurdle over. It Is believed in
ofdcial quarters that the fruits Of the
conversations between the President.
Premier Ramsay Macdonald, Edouard
Herriot and Guido Jung are now suf-
ficiently ripe to proceed to the next i'm
portant step which must precede the
Londen economic parleys, and that is
the successful conclusion Of the Geneva
Limitation OF arms conference
The situation there was still obscure
during the last few days. Britain's re-
luctance to Join In the first action Of
good will between nations, as offered by
the President in his tariff truce pro-
posal, had inevitable consequences at
Geneva, where the powers with d.
vergent points of view as to what u
limitation Of ornaments continued to
MAINTAIN . stiff and unyielding atti-
tude.
Field Believed Clear.
Now that the British objections to
the tariff truce have been overcome. it
appears the field at Geneva is clear for
some real action.
Premier Ramsay MacDonald's state
ment In the House Of Commons yester-
day. to the effect that the United States
might be willing to associate itself with
the other powers to consult In case OF
threat Of war. Is reported to have
created q powerful impression in the
capital of the League Of Nations.
Although there has been no oficial
comment made in Washington on that
question, the statesmen at Geneva are
taking 1t for granted that the British
prime minister has not spoken in the
House of Commons without some solid
foundation. especially that the Mac
Donald statement was still more au-
th0ritative since he had just returned
from Washington. where he had i'm
portant exchange Of views with the
President Of the United States and q
number Of Senators.
DeveIopments Predicted.
It looks today Is though some spec
tacular developments are going to take
place at Geneva in the course Of the
next two weeks. For the time being
the situation Is still dimcult The
French maintain their point Of view
that there can be no reduction in quail
itative and cumulative disarmament
unless the Germans comply with two
important requests. One Is that they
should abandon their present profess
sional army for . national militia, and
the other Is that they should give up
their demand Of building sample"
armaments, such aS tanks, heavy guns,
airplanes and submarines.
The Germans. Is long as 1t appeared
that the British and French govern
mentS would not come to an agreement
with the United States on the tariff
truce. were unyielding tn their demands
for arms equality"-that Is to say, that
a. long ~ other nations possessed what
the experts ut Geneva called Offensive
weapons" they should have the right to
possess them, too.
Wants Real Disarmament
In his talks with DR.. Hjalmar
Schacht, the spokesman Of the Nazi
to have tntimated clearly that the
United States cannot agree with that
point OF view; that the Geneva Con-
ference was summoned to bring about q
limitation and not an increase Of arma-
ments. and that the construction of
even sample" offensive weapons would
jeopardize the purpose Of the Geneva
Conference and poison further the Eu-
ropean atmosphere.
The Germans are reported to stand
by their principles, but 1t Is believed
that with the cooperation of Great
Britain. France and Italy-the latter Is
as anxious as the United States to
bring the Geneva Conference to a sue
cessful conclusion-the point of view
of a gradual reduction of offensive
ornaments will prevail without Ger
many insisting on her rearming