News of the Week
BY the end of this week Mr. Eden will have returned to London from Rome by way of Paris. Divergent rumours regarding the success of his journey have been current. Actually there have been no negotiations properly so called. The pilgrimage has been aceuratel:y described as being exploratory and explanatory.- And the main discovery made by the explorer was that Germany would accept the British draft subject to two conditions... 1 The size of the new Gernian short-service army must be 30%000„ not 200,000 ; and if a decision regarding the abolition of military aviation is to be postponed for two:years, as- it may be. under the British proposals, then Germany must in the interim be free to equip herself with from 700 to 1,000 military aeroplanes. Here, manifestly, is the crux of the whole discussion. We am faced with the gravely disturbing prospect of the addition to the armaments of the world of a formidable German air force, and with the hardly. less disturbing reflection that that development could be prevented if this country were prepared to take a step which its Government, to all appearances is not prepared to take. Germany does not demand air armaments uncon- ditionally. :If other countries will agree to abolish them she will make no claim to them. But she refuses to remain unarmed in the air for two years more, while France is talking of reconstructing her whole air arm, and an organized drive for an increased air force is in progress here.
