Evening star., 1934-03-05
French Outl00k for Arms
Agreement Discouragmg
Nation Slo,cly Realizing Diminished
Prestige as German, British and
Italian Plans Offer "Suicide."
BY EDGAR ANSEL MOWRER.

BY EDGAR ANSEL MOWRER.
BY Radio to The Star.
PARIS, France, March 5.-"When
the Emperor of AMMAN falls into dis
grace with his subjects, he is waited
upon by his chief minister. The chief
minister bows and presents to the
Emperor a tray on which there is
knife, a rope and dish of poison.
The Emperor can choose the method
whereby he prefers to die. But die he
must.
This Is the international situation
today France is the Emperor of
AMMAN and Capt Anthony Eden,
British lord privy seal and disarma-
ment negotiator. is the chief minister
offers he brings is that France is
asked to choose its own method of
suicide"
This anecdote, recently related at a
| dinner party by a prominent French
statesman, accurately portrays the
disarmament situation as the French
see it. For the results of the latest
British attempt to sell disarmament
to Europe apparently has resulted. as
predicted in these dispatches. in the
total eclipse of any sort of disarma-
ment.
What Great Britain's travelling
salesman" Capt Eden. has really
brought to Paris is a plan envisaging
limited rearmament for Germany and
retention of the status quo for every
one else. The French both like and
trust Capt. Eden. Tall. young. good
looking and conservative, he enjoys
their confidence As they never trusted
the British foreign minister, Sir John
Simon.
German Support Alleged.
The French claim that, while Sir
John privately feels toward German
rearmament just as they do publicly
he supports Germany. They believe
| that Capt. Eden has done his best to
secure European unity on the arn1a-
ment question, but that the only pos
sible basis just is not good enough.
The British, be it repeated, want to
| reach some sort of agreement in order
TO regularize the situation" and sat-
isfy some paci1sts. In their sleeve
they already have q vast plan for
the complete reconstruction Of their
air forces on q basis of unequaled
efficiency
The Italians want a disarmament
agreement. first Of all. to weaken
French supremacy-a supremacy
which has ceased to exist as the
price to induce German Chancellor
Adolf Hitler to cease from Nazifying
Austria, thus enabling Italian Premier
Benito Mussolini to escape from the
mortal danger to which the Austrian
situation exposes him.
The Germans want so-called dis
armament, first. to give Hitler sue
cess: second. to reduce the gap that
separates their armaments from those
of France, and third. to obtain GER
tificate of legitimacy for the airplanes,
tanks, cannon and the trained reserves
they already possess.
Therefore the British, Italians and
Germans are virtually able to agree on
the following plan:
l. The French would not increase
their armaments for five years.
g. The Germans would increase
the Reichswehr or regular army from
100 900 to 100000 men and secure a
fair number of what are called de-
fensive weapons.
3. Supervision would be instituted
all around. especially to prevent pri-
vate armies from obtaining a military
character.
4. After five years the original plan
Of British Prime Minister Ramsay
Macdonald would come into effect.
Germany and Geneva.
The British and Italians wish to
60 further: They wish Germany to
return 20 Geneva. The Germans re-
fuse. at least until they have gained
what they want.
The Germans, in their turn, go
further They demand pursuit air
planes equal to 40 per cent of those
now possessed by all the neighboring
states together. or approximately
1000 planes. which they already own
OF are actually building. This last
claim bitterly annOys the British and
does not please the Italians
lid " dss Vic SlIudbtOll SdpJ.
Eden yesterday presented to French
Premier CASTOR Doumergue and his
foreign minister, Jean Louis Barthou,
in Paris. The French listened and
then asked a question: What, they
inquired, would the British do If the
Germans, after signing an agreement,
were caught breaking it?
Capt Eden admitted that he did
not know. Barthou explained to Capt.
Eden how difficult it would be to per-
suade the French general staff and
Parliament to accept a disarmament
agreement that did not contain sane
tlons against transgressor.
Finally, the French stated that they
would consult the general staff and
the Council of National Defense and
send a written answer to the British
in a week or 10 days.
Once more the French are facing
terrible decision-the choice of the
Emperor of AMMAN. Unless the Brit
ish promise real sanctions. which is
unlikely. the French can only either
accept the Italo-British plan as
basis for further discussion. or stall
for time, or break off the negotiations
on the ground that they ceased to be
concerned with disarmament, but deal
merely with German rearmament.
First Decision Points.
To make the first decision would
mean three things: That the French
had allow Germany to rearm secretly
and then legalize its situation; that
the plan could only extend to April
10, when the Disarmament Commit
tee will meet again to decide whether
1t is worth while continuing the nego-
WHERE TO DINE.