NEWS NOTES AND COMMENTS

...which Stresemann said was put to the super-armored Roman: "What right have we to be so afraid...

...When Great Britain and United .States haggle over the size and number of ships they must have to protect their commerce they ignore the fact that Germany whose world trade is rapidly increasing has no relative safeguard of food and merchandise in the event of war...

...Strescmann, Germany's Foreign Minister, dramatically announced to the Assembly that Germany would be the first of the great powers to accept the compulsory arbitration clause of the World Court of Justice, he was greeted with tremendous enthusiasm followed by a remarkable ovation...

...I am devoted to the League of Nations, but not even for the League would I destroy that smaller but older league which is the British Empire...

...Von Bernstorff declared that since that time there had been no fulfillment of the recognized obligation...

...The Treaty of Versailles allowed her the merest skeleton'of a Navy...

...But to Germany, disarmed and out of patience with the other nations because of their failure to live up to their disarmament agreement, the flow of oratory at Geneva did not compensate for the absence of any reference to the freeing of the Rhineland and the revision of German's eastern border...

...He emphasized that the slowness of disarmament was causing the murmurs of the people to grow louder and louder, and declared that multitudes are determined to know the exact nature of the obstacles impeding peace, and determined also to prove that a man is not a primitive brute, destined forever to slay his fellows...

...According to the Chicago Tribune, in the course of his address he cited the instance of a citizen who appeared among a peaceful crowd in the ancient Roman Forum, armed to the teeth, and who, when justifying his arms on the ground that he feared he might be attacked, was asked, "Who gave you leave to be afraid...

...These criticisms were greeted ¦with great applause in the galleries...

...Stresemann got the floor and made a most earnest plea for the speeding up of preparations for an international conference for the reduction of armaments...

...He had recently resigned from the Baldwin cabinet because he was in disagreement with the British Government's policy in handling the disarmament question, particularly at the Three-Party Naval Conference called by President Coolidge, which ended in failure August 4th...

...As reported in the New York Times, the jurists of the great powers sat throughout the night and insisted that the word "war" should be modified into the phrase "war of aggression," and under the influence of some of the big powers Poland reluctantly trimmed down the original non-aggression compact until it was a mere skeleton of the original...

...that while the conquered nation* had been compelled to disarm radically the victorious nations stood about as they were in 1'Jli...

...Stresemann said that war could never be abolished if nations continue to base their security upon the maintenance of armaments...

...Thus again was the League confronted with the condition laid down in the preamblo to the Treaty of Peace, which when Germany affixed her signature to the contract, twenty-seven other nations with equal solemnity agreed to its conditions...

...This was the standard of disarmament established at Versailles, from which there is no honorable escape for the League of Nations, as was shown by Major General Tasker H. Bliss, who, next to President Wilson, was the highest United States official at the Paris Peace Conference, in his remarkable address at Philadelphia, December, 1920, urging the United States to lead the world in disarmament...

...People Want Disarmament IT IS claimed to be an advance step that two different committees are to study the subject of Disarmament and Security which have hitherto been considered inseparable...

...This word 'peace' statesmen must ever repeat, and you, journalists, must never cease to speak of the idea of peace, if only to oppose it...

...The premise of the peace preamble was later on further emphasized by Count vo;i Bernstorff, Germany's former ambassador to the United States, who created something of a sensation by reading to the Assembly 51...

...Consequently, the larger birds have relatively smaller wings than tneie tinier comrades of the air...

...He disagreed with those who said nothing had been achieved in the direction of disarmament...

...The effect of Lord Cecil's absence upon the Eighth Assembly of the League of Nations was different than might have been expected...

...for, they are not heavy enough to derive any driving power from their weight...

...The reasons for his resignation seemed to have inspired the smaller nations with courage and determination to bring the disarmament issue to thje front and to press its consideration upon the Assembly without waiting for the approval of the Big Powers, whose undue domination they were even bold enough openly to resent...

...Germany's Example Wx HEN llr...

...Stresemann and said his "noble discourse came as a ray of light to dissipate the mist" and he pledged France to "dedicate her every energy to perpetuate the Franco-German friendship and world peace...

...Stresemann's outstanding appeal...

...British Point of View £>IR Austen Chamberlain, defending the Brit-i3 ish Government against accusations of coldness to the League and domination of its policies, reiterated Great Britain's position that the principle of the protocol under which the nations assume obligations to make war against an "aggressive" nation lays greater burdens on the British Empire than she can bear...

...In the fight sure to come at the next session of Congress for an enormous naval appropriation, and most likely for conscription and universal military training, we may well base our campaign of opposition on the simple question, Why should the most independent and powerful of nations be superlatively armed while the other nations of the earth are clamoring for disarmament...

...His explanation lies in the law of momentum...

...There is a mystic force in the word itself that breathes hope...

...In order to render possible the initiation of a general limitation of armaments of all nations," Germany abolished conscription, universal military training and service, was allowed only such amount of arms, ammunition and equpiment necessary for a small authorized army to perform its function of maintaining internal order...

...At least one thing stands out plain in the reports of the League debate: World public opinion is pressing hard for disarmament as a basis of getting rid of war...

...while admitting it to be true that the preliminary negotiations at Geneva had not succeeded, he said that an immense amount of work and preparation had been accomplished, and he was convinced world opinion would force advancement of disarmament policy...

...The discouraging setback of suspension of work by the preparatory commission last Spring together with the failure of the Tri-Partite Naval Conference had given cause to believe that the long disarmament debate would result only in deadlock...

...Clemenceau's letter of June, 1919, to the German delegation, which in effect said that the allied and associated powers considered the enforced disarmament of Germany under the Treaty of Versailles as a preliminary step toward more general disarmament...

...Germany is disarmed at sea as well as on land...

...Larger birds, once started, remain in the air, principally, by the momentum their relatively heavy bodies attain in flight...

...If words did not possess this mystic force there never would have been religion...

...The German Monarchists of course were hostile, the German Liberals approved their Foreign Minister's acceptance of the World Court's compulsory jurisdiction...

...Small Nations Revolt THE first notice of revolt of the small nations against the big powers came on the second day of the Assembly when the Foreign Minister of Holland, Jonkheer van Blokland, got the platform ahead of all others and declared that disarmament was not only the prime mission of the League but also a subject now absorbing the thought of the entire world, particularly in the United States where outlawry of war was becoming a popular phrase...

...Belgium Speaks ONK OF the most powerful participants in the disarmament debates was Senator De Brouckerc of Belgium...

...Norway and Lithuania joined Sweden in the demand that the League put more vim into its activities, especially its disarmament activities...

...In the days following the frightful war, when men, and still more women, had yet in their eyes the spectacle and horrors and nightmares of the butcheries of yesterday—for all those the word 'peace' possessed a mystic, powerful force...

...Smaller birds, however, keep aloft by sheer wing lift...

...The fact that the disarmament issue was discussed throughout the Eighth Session as the prime reason for the existence of the League and that finally, instead of being scrapped as anticipated, it retained a foremost place in the agenda of the coming December session, is in itself held to be a great victory...

...Peace is not easy to accomplish and does not always depend on demonstrations of logic," M. Briand said...

...In the last days of the Assembly Dr...

...He said the nations were asking the impossible when they asked Great Britain to guarantee the frontiers of all the countries, as she has the Rhineland frontier, and he said "That would be asking for a disruption of the British Empire...

...He implored the delegates of more than fifty nations not to shake the faith of mankind in order that a better future may follow the dark days of the war...

...The League Council adopted the following resolution: "The Council considering the resolution adopted by the Assembly on September 24th, forbidding all wars of aggression and declaring that all pacific means must be employed to settle differences of whatever nature which may arise between states, begs the Secretary General to bring the said resolution to the attention of all members of the League...

...According to Wythe Williams, the chief reporter for the New York Times of the proceedings, this Eighth Session of the Assembly is regarded by the members of the League as the most important session ever held...

...Aggression" Weakens Resolution ON September 24th the League Assembly adopted by a unanimous roll call vote the Polish resolution which as emasculated by the great jurists' substitution of the phrase "wars of aggression" for "wars" reads: "All wars ot aggression are and always shall be prohibited and that every pacific means must be employed to settle disputes of every description which may arise between states...

...The plain, common sense people of the United States may profitably ask their Senators and Representatives the questioi...

...Germans Ask Action ACCORDING to newspaper dispatches from Berlin, the German people were not satisfied with the eloquent addresses of Stresemann and Briand before the League Assembly...

...He concluded, however, "Don't forget that no country can disregard the moral judgment of the League of Nations," and he gave it as his conviction that the League, now an acorn, would Crow to be a sturdy oak, helpful (o the world...

...therefore the spirit of the Geneva protocol should be revised and brought up to date and introduced in the form of a new resolution to be adopted by the Assembly...

...Austin Clark, Smithsonian scientist, explains this, in a recent statement...

...and under a system of competitive armaments which many of us believe will sooner or later land the world in war...

...generous, noble thoughts would never have found birth, and humanity would never have progressed...

...Poland had come prepared with a resolution which as drafted was of such significance that 1 quote it here: "Recognizing the solidarity which unites the Commonwealth of Nations, inspired by a strong will to insure the maintenance of universal peace...

...He declared further that Germany would not only follow the path of peace, she would strive to be a pioneer...

...M. Briand declared it was the duty of all members of the League to carry out the agreement to limit armaments...

...Mystic Force of Words M. BR1AND, the French Foreign Minister, moved his auditors to cheer and to weep by his eloquent eulogy of Peace at a luncheon of the League's journalistic association following Dr...

...The world can only be built upon a foundation of mutual respect and equality of rights...

...Viscount Cecil, who has been looked upon as the U-ague's foremost champion of disarmament and world peace, was not there to take leadership and responsibility...

...they argued that it was enough that Germany had already promised not to make war on Poland...

...Much less than Germany does our great self-sustaining nation need a big navy...

...Humanity does .tint always obey reasoning, but is often penetrated by the force of a word...

...We in Germany," quietly remarked Dr...

...Why waste money trying to rival her imperial ambition...

...He asserted that the League of Nations could not endure unless the duty of general disarmament was discharged...

...Some of the German delegates, it was reported, privately expressed fear of the Polish resolution on the ground that it was a trap—that what the Poles really wanted was new ratification of their eastern boundary...

...Addressing the Assembly the following day, M. Briand lauded the courageous stand of Dr...

...Our militarists insist that war with Great Britain is unthinkable...

...All of us have noted the measured flop-flop of a crow's or a gull's wings and compared the action with the blurred beating of the wings of a sparrow, a robin, or a humming bird...

...In consequence, the Assembly urges members of the league to take action on these declarations and conform to their principles in their mutual relations...

...Any recourse to war in order to settle international disputes is and remains forbidden...

...With deep emphasis he said, "We are faced with the solemn promise made to the whole world, which constitutes the moral basis and genesis of the League, and that is, the promise that the disarmament of the nations who lost the war should be preliminary to general disarmament...

...Yes, we must believe in the mystic force of words, because they lead to life, to the sun, and conduct us to peace...

...affirming that war ought never to serve as a means of settlement for disputes between nations and that, therefore, a war of aggression represents an international crime and considering that solemn renunciation of all war of aggression would be an excellent means of creating an atmosphere of general confidence eminently favorable to the procedure and development of the work begun along the lines of disarmament, the Assembly declares as follows: "1...

...Felix Cielens, Foreign Minister of Latvia, another small nation, warned the Assembly that the military budgets of 1926 in Europe, including naval and air forces, amounted to $1,500,-000,000, about the same as in 1013, and that the aggregate number of soldiers, more than 3,000,-000, was only slightly less than the figure for 1913...

...The hottest thermometer reading ever taken on earth, officially at least, was at Azizia, in the plain of Jepara, northern Africa, on July 13, 1922...

...Every dispute of whatever nature arising between States or nations cannot be settled except by pacific means...

...Speak of peace forever, and that will suffice...

...that since France is now a'one in her Polish alliance she would be especially benefited by the adoption of the proposed resolution because in case of trouble between Germany and Poland, other nations than France would be obligated to come to the rescue...

...Stresemann, "are often tempted to say that to our neighbors...

...Wings It is commonly observed that small birds fly with wings beating at many times the speed of the wings of larger birds...

...Erich Lot'gren, of Sweden, is reported as having "scourged the practice of certain members of the League in discussing burning political questions among themselves" and to have admonished the Assembly of "the danger that important political questions should be held from the decisions of the Council and transferred to an inner circle of representatives of certain powers only...

...He said, "We are living under the conditions of armed peace which prevailed before the war...

...Similarly, insects have much larger wings, for their size, than have birds...