The Fuel of War An important • step forward in
the organization of peace would be taken if the American Congress were prepared to act on President Hoover's message and ratify the Convention for the Suppression of the Inter- national Traffic in Arms, signed at Geneva in 1925.
For there is little doubt that if America took this step
all the European Great Powers would quickly follow it: Unhappily there is no prospect of Congress acceding to
this or any other request it may receive from Mr.
Hoover. The case for the Convention is overwhelming, for in practically every continent hostilities are at the Present moment being carried on with the aid of imported arms. The very papers which reported Mr. Hoover's message carried lengthy articles on an alleged consignment
of arms from Italy through Austria to Hunga.ry—a
proceeding calculated to arouse feelings of the utmost alarm in Yugoslavia. The traffic-in-arms question is tending to be merged in the Disarmament 0:Inference, but America could, if it would, give a notable lead without waiting for the outcome of the interminable discussions at Geneva.
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