INTERNATIONAL DISARMAMENT

BY MAJOR-GENERAL SIR FREDERICK MAURICE, K.C.M.G., C.B.

Director of Military Operations--Imperial General Staff, 1915-16.


Sir Frederick Maurice said:--This problem of the reduction of armaments
is one of the most urgent of the international and national problems of
the day. It is urgent in its economic aspect, urgent also as regards its
relation to the future peace of the world. The urgency of its economic
aspect was proclaimed two years ago at the Brussels conference of
financiers assembled by the League of Nations. These experts said quite
plainly and definitely that, so far as they could see, the salvation of
Europe from bankruptcy depended upon the immediate diminution of the
crushing burden of expenditure upon arms. That was two years ago. Linked
up with this question is the whole question of the economic
reconstruction of Europe. Linked up with it also is that deep and grave
problem of reparations. It is no longer the case to-day, if it has ever
been the case since the war, which I doubt, that sober opinion in France
considers it necessary for France to have large military forces in order
to protect her from German aggression in the near future. For the past
two years, however, it has been the custom of those who live upon alarms
to produce the German menace. There is a great body of opinion in
France at this moment which feels that unless France is able to put the
pistol to Germany's head, it will never be able to get a penny out of
Germany.