We have written fully on the whole subject in our
first leading article, but may refer here to some of the latest news. Correspondents in Washington think that there is no prospect of President Coolidge acting on Lord Cushendun's suggestion that the American Government should propose an alternative to the Anglo-French compromise for presentation as a draft formula to the Preparatory Commission of the Disarmament Conference. If this be true there does not seem to be any hope of summoning the Disarmament Conference. It was uni- versally agreed that the Preparatory Commission must first of all make the way plain, and the way instead of becoming plainer has become more obscure.
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