The Trained Reservists M R. HUGH GIBSON, the American representative, brought
a magic wand to Geneva. He waved it first over the Naval problems and transformed_ a dead- lock into a smiling prospect. Then he waved it over the deadlock in the discussions about land forces, and though he produced no smiling prospect in this case he at least set events moving again.
As we understood him, he is content with one thing at a time ; he wants to make sure of a sweeping reduction of Naval armaments by the two greatest Naval Powers and he thinks that this good example on the sea is bound later to have its effect upon the land. So may it be ! The hope is at least based on reason. Anyhow, if the preparatory Commission of the Disarmament .Conference was not to be brought to nought, nothing but Mr. Gibson's policy was of any use.
Let us recognize frankly, however, that the concession which Mr. Gibson made on behalf of America involves serious consequences. He made it with great reluctance. We have always taken the view that there could be no real disarmament on land if the conscriptionist view prevailed that trained reservists should not be counted in any estimate of a nation's military strength. The British Government has long held this opinion, and SO also has the American Government. Now they have both given way. Nevertheless, it is almost farcical to measure the strength of a military nation in terms pretending to have a mathematical accuracy if outside the estimate there is an unknown number of men still in the prime of life and still effective soldiers in the sense that they have been fully trained and have not forgotten their training. In such circumstances a nation with nominally a small army may be, in fact, ready to spring to arms at a moment's notice with the whole strength of its manhood.
All this being so, it must be acknowledged that there can be no possibility of a reduction of land forces worth talking about unless conscription itself is abolished. We cannot get rid of Reservists without getting rid of conscription. But when nations which have the conscrip- tionist tradition are told that they ought to break with it, the reformers find that they have a very hard nut to crack. The proceedings of the Preparatory Commis- sion have proved that the attachment of France and Italy to conscription has become stronger rather than weaker through being challenged. Mr. Gibson, in these latter days, has found himself in the position which British statesmen for a much longer time found em- barrassing and at last found untenable. Great . Britain and America, relying in the main upon naval strength, have never troubled themselves deeply about their land power. _ They have been content with small voluntary armies. France and Italy, on the other hand, have relied in the main for their protection on land forces. It is therefore easy, and indeed. logical, for France and Italy to retort .upon Great Britain and America " It is all very well' for yon to propose the abolition of a means of security which, you do not yourselves .require." The utmost that . America and Great Britain can reply to that is, " Well, we will lead the way in reducing our own weapons, and we can only hope that ytiu will feel it right to make some, corresponding military reduction as soon as you can." . Even if France cannot see her way to make any immediate concessions on land she may make them on the sea, so that even if little or nothing can be done for the time being_towards the reduction of armies there will be a really. " cleats job " in naval reduCtion. Anyone who has talked with a Frenchman, an Italian, or a pm-War German about conscription will have appreciated tht,-, tenacity with which the conscriptionist faith is held. It would be foolish to underrate it. The usual feeling in a conscriptionist country is that universal service is constitutional—that the responsibility of help- ing to keep the country safe is an elementary duty of citizenship and, as such, must fall upon all alike. There must . be no favouritism. Then again, though young men who are called up for service find it irksome to leave their homes, they pass into a different phase of feeling when they become older. As fathers they are willing, and indeed anxious, that their sons should have the same taste of discipline that they had themselves, and go through the same physical courses which are said to make for national health. In France, if not in other conscript countries, there is a further feeling that a conscript army, co-extensive with the nation, is a kind of insurance against arbitrary actions by the Government. Frenchmen would not trust a Government with a voluntary army attached to it by the nexus of high pay.
Although the reality of such arguments for conscrip- tion cannot be ignored, they are likely to lead, we fear, to many difficulties. The Peace Treaty . exacted the disarmament of Germany, but only on the understanding that her enforced disarmament should be imitated volun- tarily by the Allies. Yet there now seems to be a distinct possibility that there will not be enough land disarma- ment by the Allies before 1985 to satisfy Germany that the Peace Treaty has been honoured. In that event Germany will have a grievance. She may claim a right to revert to conscription herself. Her population is larger than that of France. We need not dwell upon the anxiety which will be aroused in France in that event—if she feels that her neighbour is reacquiring her military pre-eminence.
We have been deliberately looking upon the darkest side of things—examining the road along which mere logic may drive the European nations, if good will and the higher. reason do not save the situation. But, after all, we are entitled to believe that the break-up of the deadlock at Geneva has imported a new spirit into the Commission. It is possible that even though Anierica and Great Britain have had to agree to leave trained reservists out of any of the computations of military strength, there may be other ways of limiting and estimating the military strength of a nation—for example the limitation of munitions and equipment. Infantrymen would be uselesi, at all events in the early clashes of war, without rifles ; artillerymen would be useless without guns ; guns useless without shells.
It is a notable fact that Great Britain and America have made their `concession deliberately in open council at Geneva. There was no question of the concession being made as an extraneous incident in a bargain, as in the most unfortunate Anglo-French Agreement. If France is wise she will not, for her own sake, let the logic, of conscription drive her into.a new rivalry with Germany. She will rather listen to Mr. Gibson who, in effect, said, " The two greatest naval Powers mean business. We are showing our faith in peace and in one another. It remains for you to follow suit. What are you going to do?"
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