Progress Toward Disarmament

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THE adjournment of the Geneva Conference marks a definite turning point in the negotiations for a general disarmament agreement and furnishes a good moment to take stock of the present situation in the light of developments since the war. The work of technical preparation has been carried on for slightly more than a decade. National points of view have been fully presented and publicly debated. It is now time for the decisions of a political character which will determine whether general measures of disarmament are possible in the present state of the world.

The fact that more than fifty nations were summoned to Geneva last February to conclude a disarmament treaty encouraged the public to believe that the leading military powers had agreed in principle. Hence there was a natural expectation that more would be achieved than proved to be practicable at this first session. To those who had followed the situation closely and who knew the lack of agreement on fundamentals, the resolution which the Conference adopted just prior to adjournment contained the maximum which could have been hoped for at this stage of the proceedings. It is a beginning which holds out the possibility of future accomplishment.

Before considering the work done at Geneva, we should review the events which led to the decision to proceed with disarmament negotiations despite this lack of agreement on fundamentals and despite the difficult and perplexing world conditions which existed when the Conference convened on February 2 last...