"Better a Failure . . . !"

"Better a Failure . . .!"

The name of the group which met last week in Geneva for the seventh time is The League of Nations Preparatory Commission for the Disarmament Conference. Once upon a time what they sought was "disarmament," but last week Dutch Chairman Jonkheer Dr. J. Loudon opened the session with these words: "We must ask the public to break its habit of referring to disarmament in connection with our work. What we are dealing with is only the reduction and limitation of armaments. Absolute disarmament remains an ideal the realization of which is scarcely conceivable in the present political and moral situation of the world." President Hoover was represented last week by Ambassador (to Belgium) Hugh Gibson. "We shall contribute," said Mr. Gibson, "a great deal of silence." Dictator Josef Stalin of Soviet Russia was represented by Commissar for Foreign Affairs Maxim Maximovitch Litvinov. "This is the last time that Soviet Russia will send a delegation to this Preparatory Conference," he declared, recalling that three years ago he submitted a proposal for "absolute disarmament" of all nations, and later a proposal for "50% disarmament," both of which were rejected--Mr. Gibson having been at pains to indicate that he for one doubted Comrade Litvinov's good faith.

Minutiae. With no great power except Russia ready to talk disarmament, and with all the others doubting Russia's good faith, the Commission for the 22nd time came to a full stop, spent last week piddling with minutiae.

Greatest Achievement: the 32 nations represented agreed at last that the human personnel of the world's navies ought to be in some way limited, but how they could not agree. This was regarded as a "victory" for French diplomacy, as the English have always contended that limiting warships automatically limited naval personnel, and that it was silly to talk about limiting sailors separately. With great acumen the French pointed out that if a nation [Germany, for example] were permitted to have an unlimited naval personnel she might, by the subterfuge of en titling her soldiers "sailors," build up an army of unlimited size. Where do we stand? In vain Count von Bernstorff argued for Germany last week that it would be better for the Com mission to admit failure and go out of existence than to continue to lull the peoples of the world into a false belief that their statesmen are advancing toward Disarmament and Peace. Said a spokes man for Count von Bernstorff: "Better a failure and the knowledge of where we stand than this endless prolongation of discussion!" Without daring to propose anything so radical in open meeting, the German dele gation hinted readiness to accept the following proposal : Let every nation in the world agree to limit its artillery to one battery per 1,000,000 citizens. Quickly it became apparent that not even in the single category of artillery are the nations ready even for limitation, much less for disarmament.

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