Celebrating . the Peace Pact At the White House on Wednesday
there was a formal celebration of the coming into effect. of the Peace Pact. Particular point was given to the. ceremony by the successful_ invocation of the Pact to which we have just .referred. President Hoover has made it obvious, as the Washington correspondent of the Times says, that he wishes to instil in the American mind a sense of the great significance of the Pact. For this purpose he insists not only on its moral aspect, but upon the very material consideration _ that; assured peace brings with it relief from burdensome taxation. The day before the celebration, for example, he remarked " American people should understand that the current expenditure on the strictly military activities of the Army and Navy constitutes the largest military Budget of any nation in the world to-day, and at a time when there is less real danger of extensive disturbance to peace than at any time M more. than .half a century." This material consideration is even more cogent here than in the United States. The reduction of naval expenditure is the most obvious of all possible British economies, and it has the special advantage that every diminution of the apparatus of war all over the world develops confi- dence in the Pact, and lessens the likelihood of war. The more the nations save on warlike preparations the more they will be able to save.
