24 SEPTEMBER 1927, Page 19

DISARMAMENT

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]

days not long ago the Spectator was a strong advocate of the Militia principle of training soldiers ; indeed, it went to a great length to show the way how it could be very well done. I have read your Geneva Correspondent in the issue of September lath, and the speech of M. Vandervelde in the Hall at Geneva, who said : " The Powers now recognize that there was not merely a moral but a judicial obligation to diEarm."

Perhaps the way to begin would be to engage the attention of the nations by asking them to agree to found their armed forces on a Militia or Territorial basis, training them in their own manner, means and extent, but leaving it to the League of Nations to decide what each Power should keep up per- manently as Regular Forces indispensable to their responsible requirements for the protection of their oversea commitments or possessions By doing so, surely we would get a very great reduction in Permanent Regular War Forces, thereby gaining time for arbitration, and the giving of security and maybe the banish- ment of war.—I am, Sir, &c., F. F.