IN HOUSE OF COMMONS

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 71, 25 March 1933, Page 13

IN HOUSE OF COMMONS

DISARMAMENT DEBATE

CHURCHILL SCEPTICAL

United Press .Association—Bj Electric Tele-

eraph—Copyright.

LONDON, March 24. In the House of Commons, continuing the debate on, the Prime Minister's statement on disarmament and the Italian Four-Power Plan, Mr. J>. E. Grenfell (Lab.) said he was apprehensive that Mr. Mac Donald's armament figures were much too high. They, offered little hope of considerable disarmament within five years. Sir Archibald Sinclair, for the Liberals, paid a tribute to the Government's efforts to restore a good understanding among the.nations irrespective of their form of Government. They must .concede that Mr. MaeDonald's work abroad had wrought a beneficent change. ' . '

Mr. "Winston Churchill questioned the wisdom of inviting France to accept Mr. MaeDonald's latest plan. France must be greatly concerned, he said, at the events in. Germany, and her attitude towards her other neighbours. When he saw tumultuous insurgence, ferocity of war spirit, and pitiless ill-treatment of minorities purely on the ground of race, all this in one of the most gifted anoT formidable nations, it was hardly the moment to ask France to' halve her" army while Germany doubled hers,"or to ask France to halve her air force. Germany and Italy together would have a larger army than France.

"Mr. Mac Donald's intervention has brought us nearer to war and made us weaker and more defenceless," he said amid cries of "No" and "Withdraw." '

The Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs (Captain E. A. Eden), in reply? ing, said that Mr. MacDoiiald and Sir John Simon had received encouragement and constrnetive criticism from every party, except Mr."Churchill. It .was surely worth while to give the new method of basing policy on disarmament a trialMn. order to avoid the system which led to 1914. If they could obtain Italy's assistance in securing the co-operation of France and Germany it would be a step forward. (Cheers.) "It is untrue to say that we are asking France to halve her army, while Germany doubles hers," he paid. "The Convention asks Germany to change the military organisation of the professional army imposed on, her at Versailles to a short-term militia similar to other nations, which is a condition France has repeatedly demanded. The Convention provides for a generous measure of disarmament, and provides a just.and reasonable five years' settlement. Any scheme entered into must be ratified by Parliament."