It is quite certain that the old October 14th plan,
with its period of probation, is useless now as a basis for discussion, for Germany will have none of it, but it would be perfectly possible to go back to the earlier British Draft Convention, improved at certain points in the light of subsequent argument, and evolve from that a more far-reaching plan of disarmament than has yet been laid on the table by any responsible Government. The Cabinet has been appealed to month after month to give some kind of British lead, and there was never a moment when such a step promised more hopeful results than at present. The recent declarations of Mr. Roosevelt and the Russian leaders have all improved the outlook, and even though M. Chautemps' government in France may yet fall for internal reasons there is no ground for supposing that France's disarmament terms would become stiffer in consequence. Mr. Eden, the new Lord Privy Seal, said in a public speech last Monday precisely what a representative of the British Government should say—precisely what more authorita- tive members of the Government ought to have said a month ago—and if the Cabinet will act in that spirit at the right moment it may yet make a contribution of the first importance to a solution of the disarmament problem;
