The Rome Talks and After
The meeting of the League of Nations Council now in progress will give a useful opportunity for the continuation on a larger stage of the international conversations which began at Rome last week, and a fuither chapter will be added when M. Flandin and M. Laval come to London in the last week of this month. It is note- worthythat both Sir John Simon and Mr. Eden have -One to "Geneva. The Rome talks- concerned- in the first instance France and Italy, but the main general preoccupation now is disarmament, for which the political atmosphere is obviously more favourable than it was. France, her differences with Italy composed, and encouraged by the hope that this country is disposed to take a larger view of its Covenant obligations in the matter of security, is likely to be less exacting than she was a year ago. M. Flandin will go further than M. Doumergue, and M. Laval than M. Barthou. At present the Disarmament Conference is concentrating, through special committees, on certain limited questions, such as budgetary publicity, the private manufacture of and traffic in arms and the creation of a Permanent Disarmament Commission, but the aim of the London talks will certainly be to plan the resumption of the attack on the larger problem. The long-awaited opportunity may at last have come.
