Frankly, however, we cannot be optimistic about the prospects of
any such conference being effective while the present situation in the Rhineland continues. In the opinion of many competent French and German observers we are -heading straight back to the situation as it was eighteen months ago, with France and Germany almost openly in armed conflict. Unless Mr. Chamberlain can persuade France to take a very different line from that which she is taking to-day, no disarmament con- ference can, in the nature of things, succeed, because the reasons for armament= acute national tensions in Europe—remain unabated. We must not sacrifice the substance to the form. A disarmament conference can hardly fail if it is held after a true Franco-German settle- ment ; it cannot possibly succeed if it is held before such a settlement.
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