GERMAN DISARMAMENT.

Otaki Mail, 13 August 1923, Page 4

GERMAN DISARMAMENT.

( RIFLES IN PRIVATE HANDS. j } SECRET STORES OR ARMS. i t ‘ L Of all German questions that of dis- | | armament is the most disagreeable to j jgo into. In all other questions one lean take facts and then draw one’s , , conclusions. But when one inquires , I into disarmament one of the main j j facts is not available —the quantity of , | arms remaining in the country and . f not surrendered. This nobody can < . tell; even the German can only guess / i at. the exact figure. Therefore one is ; | obliged to employ a reversed process, i 1 working from general considerations ( j back to t'he essential principles. In- ( l vestigation is complicated by the oir- j cumstance that military experts under j stand the term “ disarmament ” to mean something entirely different J from the notion accepted by the pub- j lie. The latter thinks in terms of ( so and so many men, guns, rifles, grenades. etc., the military men concentrate their attention mainly on the subsidiary question: Is Germany able to light, and is she preparing for waron modern lines ? Add to this that contrary to widespread impression, the 1 Treaty of Versailles is not automatically extensible and that since its sig- . * nature questions have arisen which • are not covered by any of its clauses. _ If one is afraid of controversy, and if one belongs to that useful class which desires to please everybody, one 4 should nof discuss German disarma- | ment at all, says an English writer. I But no investigation of German affairs I would be complete without this ques- ( I tion being mentioned. We have ar- g rived at our conclusions on this sub- i | ■ ject honestly by examining the con- ; | sldered opinions of Allied military ex- ' | perts and of representative Germans. 1 But a further complication has been | caused by the fact that so much bad | blood is created by the tactless and often malevolent conduct of minor i German officials which the weak Central Government is slow in repressing to the Cull satisfaction of the Allies. Naturally, the authors of the Versailles Treaty could not insert a clause obliging every man, woman, and child , in Germany to cany out disarmament j as a labour of love. But they forgot to put in a clause binding the German Government to refund monetary re- I 1 wards paid by the Inter-Allied Corn- j mission of Control for the discovery : of secret stores of arms. I * RIGHTS AND POLICY. ' In fairness to the Germans it must J be said that, in certain cases of rheir j own free will, they have done it on a small scale. But, on the other hand, J there have been cases where Germans t accused of disclosing secret stores of arms have been placed on trial as traitors to the Varerlaud. In doing so 1 the German Government is legally within its rights. But is this good po- | licv on its part ? When minor officials , or parts of the population have opposed members of the Commission In ths , execution of their duties the Central Government has taken action very re- , luctantly and under heavy pressure. | This laxity causes great friction and brings about such Notes as that which was sent on the subject of the excesses ' at Pasau and at Ingolstadt. There officers of the Commission were met by crowds of people, evidently warned be- i ! forehand. German liaison officers and I the civil authorities were not in evidence, and grave excesses were committed. which might have ended in the loss of life. The car of the Allied I . officers, after the Passau incident, | looked as if it had been subjected to ’ the fire of a machine-g-un. All these incidents are dangerous, first of all, for the Germans themselves. The Military Commissions have destroyed in the last four years enormous masses of arms and of materia!, and all the good effect of these results is compromised because of a few rifles or hand grenades. It would have been [in the direct interest of the Germans themselves t'o mete out immediate and « severe punishment to those who, by * their inconsiderate and illegal actions, [only help to prolong the work of tho Inter-Allied Commission in Berlin. | Now about hidden arms. The Germans themselves cannot deny that a great- number of rifles and grenades carried away by the demobilised ■ troops remain hidden all over the - • country. One can point out districts in Bavaria, in Silesia and in East Pi usI sia where the population remains j possessed of arms. Allied observers j believe that there are also many mas chine-guns scattered among the estates •j of the large landowners. Unless a ! method is found by which the whole | country could be combed out thc-sa j arms will remain undiscovered. But t - !a great military expert, who is far I from friendly to the Germans, told an j inquirer that these arms, whatever j their quantity, could only be danger- ! j ous to the Germans themselves. ( j THE real, situation. ! , With an elegance truly Gallic, he i defined the position as follows;—" The j Germans have just sufficient arms to make civil war among themselves and to provoke heavy repression on the part of France as soon as they produce them. France’s military power is so considerable that she could, with her aerial force alone, destroy in two days the whole German railway system in its important points between t'he Rhine and the Elbe. The Germans, with their rifles and hand genaden would b e as helpless as Red Indians with their bows and arrows.” Therefore. although one must say that the Yersailles Treaty has not been carried “ out in the letter, it has been carried out in the question of armament in spirit. Stocks have been reduced to a minimum, and machinery specially constructed to produce war material has been destroyed. (

_ puite a different question is that of Germany’s ability lo re-arm. With her powerful industrial plants she could undoubtedly build up in a few- months a war industry in the same manner aa we did during the war. That would be comparatively an easy matter. But to avoid this one would have to raze the whole of the German industrial plant, and the Treaty of Versailles does not giv e any rights in that direction. Also, there is no clause to prevent German brains from exerds- ; ing their acumen on the invention or ‘new destructive means of warfare. The Commissions are helpless to disarm Germany in this direction. If France apprehends that she will not be able to crush in the bud any future attempt on the. part of Germany to arm for war against her she must devfsa means outside the scope of the Treaty of Versailles.