The Three Essentials
But the problem is by no means beyond solution. The old trilogy, arbitration, security, disarmament, has been displaced by another—equality, security, disarmament. France wants security, Germany equality and Britain disarmament, and common sense suggests that if all three are desirable, as they are, they should be achieved simultaneously. There is no other way, for Germany will continue to rearm till equality is either actually secured or at least assured in explicit terms for a definite date. The part this country can play is clear. By going some steps further than we have gone in our undertakings to resist any violator of the peace in Europe, and particularly in the execution of our Locarno obligations, we can give France that sense of security which alone will reconcile her to the idea of German equality and dispose her to take • up the disarmament problem again at Geneva on the lines of the British proposals of last January or the German proposals of last April. Whether Germany will still stand by the offer she made then is uncertain. The large increase in Russian armaments announced on Wednesday may influence her decision, though the danger Russia con- templates is in Eastern Asia, not in Europe. Germany's present attitude remains to be diScovered. It is for the British and French Ministers to evolve a scheme which she can reasonably be invited to accept.
