ARMAMENTS

Hokitika Guardian, 17 December 1931, Page 5

ARMAMENTS

A BRITISH PLEA. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, December 15. A large congregation, including representatives in London of ail European countries, the Prime Minister, his Cabinet colleagues, and representatives of all branches of pubic life, commerce, and industry attended the national service of prayer lor world disarmaments to-day at Saint Paul’s Cathedral. The Archbishop of Canterbury, who presided, said that the civilised worn! was’ approaching one*' of the turning points in its history, and he described next February s .disarmament Conference as being the most momentous assembly since the Peace Conference. The late war, he said, had shown that great armaments could only lead to war. Yet the world was spending on them no less than £2,000,030 daily. Britain already had made more substantial reductions in armaments than ally other country, and many thought she had peached her •lpweslt point, consistent with her safety aned obligations. I his very fact created a difficulty, which her representativesi at Geneva would have to face. It might not be possible for them to accept some general reduction by a fixed common percentage but, within classes of armaments, there were possibilities of reduction. Britain's representatives must be asked to strain every nerve to bring about, at least, a true and honest beginning in general disarmaments!, bixtyone nations had bound themselves by the Pact of Paris to renounce war as an instrument of national policy. Weie not their solemn pledges enough, to bullish the fear of which armaments were symptom? They were symptoms also of selfish nationalism, which was the ultimate cause of world economic depression.