15 OCTOBER 1927, Page 12

A " HARDY PERENNIAL."

At the outset all the omens seemed to be against any effec- tive progress. The meetings of the League's Preparatory Commission for the Disarmament Conference, held earlier in the summer, had achieved only a very limited success. The Three-Power Naval -Conference, which ended only three weeks or so before the Assembly opened, had ended in complete failure. And when the Assembly itself began to discuss the situation, difficulties instead of decreasing seemed to multiply.