The League of Nations and Disarmament

Report Outline
Russian Proposal for Complete Disarmament
Draft Convention on Disarmament
Committee on Arbitration and Security

The fifth session of the Preparatory Commission for the (League of Nations) Disarmament Conference will meet at Geneva, March 15, 1928. Since the admitted failure of the three-power naval limitation conference which met at Geneva last summer at the instance of President Coolidge, all hopes of immediate progress toward international disarmament have again centred around the work of the League's Preparatory Commission.

The agenda of the conference is simple. The delegates will concern themselves first, with the Russian resolution for complete disarmament; second, with the progress' of the work to date, and third, with the future work of the Commission. Under the heading “progress of work,” the question of a second reading of the draft convention adopted at the Commission's session last April is expected to arise, and consideration will be given also to work of the special Committee on Arbitration and Security created last December.

The session promises to be of special interest both because of the presence of the Russians who hitherto have attended only the short meeting of last December, and because of the inclusion of the question of security as a vital part of disarmament. The American delegation will be headed by Hugh S. Gibson, United States ambassador to Belgium, who headed the American delegation at the three-power naval conference. Lord Cushenden has been appointed by the British Government to replace Viscount Cecil who resigned last August, after the failure of the three-power conference, owing to his disagreement with the position taken by his government at that conference. The French delegation will, as usual, be headed by M. Paul-Boncour.