Disarming Monk

Despite the protest of his friends, M. Ernest Perrier, a Swiss delegate to the Disarmament Conference, announced last week "after many months of reflection" his resignation--in order to become a Benedictine monk.

Disarmament in Circles

No trial lawyer in France is richer or more feared than that spry little Senator with a great mop of grey hair, Maitre Joseph Paul-Boncour. In Geneva they used to know him as the perennial No. 2 French Delegate to the League, Aristide Briand being No. 1. Often, while No. 1 slumbered or seemed to slumber in his aisle seat, blocking the egress of other French Delegates, nimble No. 2 would leave and return to his seat by leaping lightly over a desk, thus permitting No. 1 to slumber on.

Briand is dead. In Geneva last week Maitre Paul-Boncour, now Minister of War, was the French No. 1. With great finesse he divulged to the Disarmament Conference Bureau somewhat more--but not too much--of the new French Disarmament plan (TIME, Nov. 7). Still tentative, the plan will be shaped into its final form partly on the basis of European reactions to the Paul-Boncour speech, partly in an effort to please the next U. S. President. Last week the great French lawyer orated extempore for more than an hour, several times referred unmistakably to Germany without mentioning that nation's name and sketched the French plan of Disarmament & Security in terms of what he called "concentric circles."

He's Got Religion! "In our first or very general circle," began leonine Paul-Boncour, stroking his handsome mane, "it is simply a question--to use almost textually the expressions which on two occasions the American Secretary of State has used--of considering that since by common accord all civilized nations have outlawed war any nation making war now can no longer continue to profit by the legal rights of belligerents. "War being outlawed, it is logical that he who wages war shall be deprived of the economic aid without which adventures of this kind could get nowhere in the modern world. It is necessary at the same time that it be known in advance that any result territorially or otherwise obtained by violation of the Briand-Kellogg pact will not be recognized by the body of civilized nations." Accordingly, continued Mantre Paul-Boncour, the "first circle" would be a World Treaty by which all nations would pledge themselves to act (instead of merely talking) in the spirit of the Briand-Kellogg Pact. The "second circle" would be a treaty, definite and precise, pledging action under the League Covenant and the Locarno Pacts, both of which documents have been taken not too seriously in the past. "The completion of these first two circles," said M. Paul-Boncour, "will make possible a third, more restricted, limited to a certain number of nations." Here, without actually saying so, the French War Minister as much as admitted that the U. S. and Great Britain will never sign a pledge to intervene for the preservation of peace in Europe, but he appealed to Continental states to sign, especially to Germany and Italy. Seated on the U. S. Delegation's bench, Tennesseean Norman H. Davis drawled complacently, "He's got religion now!"

"Extremely Reducing." To complete the third circle, of Security, France would make it a circle of Disarmament, declared her Paul-Boncour. This final circle would take the form of "extremely reducing" armaments until each nation's "permanent forces" would be "too small for any country even to defend itself alone." Far from being alone, cried Paul-Boncour, a nation which became the victim of aggression would turn to the League of Nations and receive a "loan" of "aggressive armaments," huge stocks of which the League would keep in "controlled warehouses" ready to lend. Appealing directly for U. S. support, the French War Minister offered to accept criteria already put forward by the U. S. for determining what is an "aggressive weapon" and specifically to accept the U. S. criterium for distinguishing between a fixed and a mobile gun-- adistinction over which eminent armament experts tear their hair. Appealing to Germany, Mantre Paul-Boncour offered the Reich "equality of treatment" in armaments with France and other Great Powers. This offer meant, according to the Frenchman, that the home armies of France & Germany should be of equal size and patterned on the French short-term conscript system. Turning the word "equality"--which he used last week a score of times--neatly against the Germans, deft M. Paul-Boncour said that the two armies would have to be "really equal," not proportionate in size to the two populations, in which Germany outranks France 60 millions to 40. Finally, amid polite applause, Mantre Paul-Boncour said that of course he was talking about "home armies" and that of course a colonial power like France would have an extra "colonial army"--meaning by inference that a non-colonial power like Germany would have only its home army. Significance. Bearing in mind that Germany withdrew from the Disarmament Conference on the plea that she was being denied "equality" (TIME, Sept. 26), the French plan is obviously to offer so much "equality" that Germany will be tempted or forced back into the Conference by public opinion, if only to explain her position. Last week Mantre Paul-Boncour who, as a lawyer, has defended such eminent clients as the present King Carol of Rumania against the claims of his former morganatic wife, was conceded in Geneva to have done a smart job which may rescue the Conference, for a time at least. Less pleasing to pacifists was budget news from Tokyo last week. The Japanese Navy, seizing the opportunity provided by the Japanese fighting services' present control of the Cabinet, slapped down before the Diet demands for a "supplemental appropriation" of more than half a billion yen."* This money, which the thoroughly intimidated Diet was expected to vote, would be used, according to the Navy "to make up the deficiency caused by the London Naval Treaty." According to Japanese officers the Navy's air force (not limited by the London treaty) is considered particularly "deficient" and a large part of the appropriation would be spent on buzzing, bomb-dropping hornets.

*$250,000,000 at par, $100,000,000 at current exchange.

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