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League of Nations - Disarmament Conference
Created by anna jordan on September 10, 2009, 5:58 am. Report this group | FAQ
The League of Nations was established as part of the Paris Peace Treaties that concluded the First World War. This organisation was the brainchild of Woodrow Wilson, the American President and was listed as one of his '14 points' for peace. One of the stated aims of the League of Nations was disarmament, in order to prevent aggression between nations. In 1923 the League drafted its first disarmament treaty but Britain refused to agree to it, for fear of committing to foreign affairs troops which were needed to defend the Empire. So a formal Disarmament Conference didn't convene until 1932, by which time the climate of European affairs had changed significantly from the peace-seeking early 1920s. Nevertheless, the Conference looked promising, comprising not only of League members but also Russia and the USA. By July 1932 the Conference had passed resolutions including: no bombing of civilians, limits on the size of artillery, limits on the tonnage of tanks and outlawing chemical warfare - but there were no decisions on how these resolutions were to be achieved. The biggest issue facing the conference was Germany, disarmed under the TOV: should Germany be allowed to re-arm to the level of its European neighbours, or should the rest of the Conference disarm to Germany's level? Britain was reluctant to disarm. Then, in 1933 Hitler became Chancellor of Germany and began to rearm in secret. Britain appeared finally to recognise the threat and began serious negotiations on disarmament. Nevertheless, Hitler withdrew Germany from the Conference and then from the League. By 1934 Germany's rearmament programme was an open secret, prompting other nations to rearm also. The Conference crumbled.
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LSE2071
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The conference excuses itself.
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"My friends, we have failed. We just couldn't control your warlike passions."
Disarmament Conference
Common people of the World
Notes
Also published in "A Cartoon History of Our Times by David Low" [Simon and Schuster, 1939, p.19] Text on facing page: "By May 1934 the Disarmament Conference had utterly disintegrated. Japan and Germany had quit the League of Nations, and Great Britain was divided as to what policy it should pursue in the face of the rising power of the so-called "have-not" countries. The National Government, with Ramsay MacDonald still its titular leader and Sir John Simon in the Foreign Office, was propitiating Germany and Japan at every opportunity, while at the same time it was stepping up Britain's own expenditures on arms."
Also published in "Years of Wrath: A Cartoon History 1932-1945 by David Low" [Victor Gollancz, 1949, p.17] Text printed underneath: "The common people of the world still had hopes when the Disarmament Conference met at last, thirteen years after the end of the war. But it was too late and the opportunity had been let slip. Hitler's Germany had broken with the League after having been refused equality in armaments and Japan was preparing to leave. Militant nationalism was on the increase everywhere. The governments of the dominant Powers had not agreed on a collective security policy, and were reluctant to face questions of principle. The Confernce petered out."
"Circumstances became too much for the Disarmament Conference which had by this time come down to arguing about the number of bolts and nuts on a tank. It adjourned." from "Europe since Versailles" by Low.
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