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''THE GLEANER" 33 A SPEECH ON DISARMAMENT
As delivered by Jack Ironsides at . the Third Form Lit
Previous to the World War and ever since, men of all nations have looked forward to World Peace. At present, in London, England, a great Naval Disarmament Parley is going on between the five great naval pow- ers of the world. This is one of the greate~t steps ever taken towards World Peac·e.
The parley was not reached sud- denly, but, ever since the World War it has been worked up step by step. To be able to understand the present state of affairs it would be better if we go over the steps taken toward this conference since the war.
1. The League of Nations was formed immediately after Peace was declared for the purpose of main- taining Peace.
Nearly all nations of the world are members of the League-and thus-representatives are meeting face to face making a continuous conference. Lord Grey declared after the Great War had broken out that the war could have been prevented if only the nations involYed could have had a conference. Now by means of the League such a Confer- enc•e is gomg on practically all the time. As a result a great many dis- putes have been settled chl.'ing the last ten years and in a number of cases war has been prevented.
2. The Locarno Pact, 1925. Up to the year 1925 Germany had not been admitted as a member of the League and representatives of France Franc'e and Germany had not met face to face but had been carry- ing on their negotiations by ex- changing notes. But at Locarno in 1925 the representatives of these two great nations met and solemnly agreed together - each promised never again to make war on the oth-
er and Britain stood sponsor fQr J
both. As a result of the signing of this Pact, Germany became a me' her of the League and her repre~en­ tatives now meet in conference wrch the representatives of other nationil.
3. Perhaps the greatest step of all was the signing of what is called the Paris Peace Pact, which was first signed at Paris in August 1928 and now bearing the signature of 63 na- tions by which eac'h of these nations solemnly pledge themselves never to attempt to settle any disputes that may arise by going to war.
4. Another step that might be mentioned is the forming of a World Court for the settlement of interna- tional disputes and the agreement on the nart of all the Great Nations to be willing to submit certain class- es of disputes to the court.
5. The election of Ramsay Mac- Donald as Premier of Great Britain and Herbert Hoover as President of
U. S. at ~bout the same time as these are the most powerful nations in the world and both these men are ardent advocates of Peace.
One of McDonald's first acts after c.oming into power was to cross the Atlantic to visit Mr. Hoover in order to talk over this great subject of Peace. Two results immediately fol- lowed: ·
1. A better feeling between Brit- ain and U. S.
2. The agreement to call the pre- sent Peace Conference in London at which five great naval nations are represented, Great Britain, United States, Franoe, Italy and Japan.
The puq::ose is not only to curtail t h e ~ xpenditure i n w : : t r v e s s e l s b u t to actuaEy reduce their navioo 3-0 that the people will not be so bur- dened with taxes and also that there will be less rivalry in shipbuilding, less irritation and suspicion, and therefore less liability to go to war. I Thank You.