ARMS AND THE MAN

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 251, 14 June 1932, Page 3

ARMS AND THE MAN

A LITTLE LIBERTY ON DISARMAMENT AND THE NATIONS' BIG GUNS. LEAGUE OF ORATIONS. The Geneva Disarmament Conference, which has been trying for seven years to disarm, but has only succeed- ; ed in replacing with new and more | efficient ones the arms that have rusted in the iterim, is on the point of ac^iieving unariimi'ty orf qu'alitative | disarmament and merely awaits the j composing of views in the quantitative !' field, writes H. ,J. Cantwell in the , Sydney Sun. By denouncing and outlawing predominantly offensive weapons, such as raspherries and slinghots, it hopes to improve the quality of purely defensive weapons, like the silent ma-chine-gun, which can't be heard ten yards away, and which destroys its jj victims without injuring their ear- j! drums, and the new armour-piercing | shell, which disposes of a ship's crew without spoiling the paintwork. However, ■ the stumbling block is quantitative disarmament, some of the more primitive nations being wedded to the idea of spattering their opponents over great quantities of land, instead of adopting the more modern ahd compact method of snuffing out the lives while preserving the bodies intact. This latter method is by far the most hurnane, for it permits the victim to retain his status quo, and is sanptioned by the Kellogg Pact, the Locarno Treaty, the Undertakers' Guild, and the Patriotic Poets' Circle. Moreover, it is a step in the right ' direction, a piece of practieal statesmanship, a gesture of reconciliation, and evidence of internal goodwill and a harbinger of things to come. Equality of sacrifice in the realm of explosive ownership is, of course, impossible. It may be logical, as Mr. Churchill says, but everyone knows it can't be done. In this direction, the only thing we can hope for is an agreement to differ. The theory that Germany should be the military equal of France would bring ealamity within practieal distance. Good Old League! Still, one oughtn't to despair. There is always the League of Orations. Whenever a war threatens imstop breaking out the delegates immediately boolc the best suites in the Geneva hotsls, and rush olf from their various capitals for the ski-ing and dread hazards of the toboggan slide. When the Japs were decimating the Chinese at Mukden and Crapei, the statesmen at Geneva refused to skate with the representatives of the belligerents. The moral effect of this social ostracism was immediate and startling. The scene of the fighting moved appreciably nearer to the Russian border. Here was a case where the Japanese thesis of security was in direct and ungentlemanly conflict with the Chinese thesis. The judgment was that, in order to feel secure, you had to make the other fellow feel your point of view — preferably in the seat of the pants. . Thus we had a desire for equality versus a desire for equality producing inequality of opportunity among the other shopkeeping nations, who had to suffer the depressing spectacle of seeing their favourite customers being convei'ted into fertiliser, and no one benefiting thereby. All this foolishness has • to end, and end it will if the Disarmament Conference has its way and the time. There is a method of conducting wars that is scientific and economic, and in accordance with correct commercial practice and the Audit Act. It is the function of the conference to see that that and no other method is pursued; to drive into the thick skulls of the backward nations the knowledge that cheap wars can also he good wars; that brave men may still die for justice and honour and the rights of small nations — once it has been made clear to them that their enemies do not possess any of these attributes — but that times are bad, and one must strive always to die within one's means. Ilaving driven home this divine and inspiring truth, the Disarmament Conference will not have aimed in vain.