IN GENEVA

No peace assured without a pact of mutual assistance

The French delegation, which is composed of eminent speakers, must constantly keep in mind the down-to-earth precept of the good man La Fontaine: peace is very good in itself, I agree; but what use is it with enemies without faith?
Our Government and our delegation agree on this principle: no restriction of armaments without a pact of mutual assistance, ensuring the attacked State the military and economic support of the other States. There is no security possible if the special pacts already concluded between the powers do not come into play automatically from the first act of war. This is simple common sense, and it is unfortunate to note that only 18 States have adhered to such a reasonable and realistic project.

The English thesis is once again the very thesis of the Germans. They do not want to be bound by any pact whatsoever.

Mr. Mac Donald declares that England would abdicate if she bound herself in advance by a pact obliging her to come to the aid of the violated right. Mr. Mac Donaid arrived in Geneva, it is assured, with a project of immediate disarmament which would be executed under the control of the League of Nations itself disarmed. It is always the ideological faith in the conversion of evildoers and in the virtue of peace formulas.

Can we fear that Mr. Herriot will let himself be convinced and defeated by the word arbitration which he flatters himself to have honored at the London Conference? We hope that he will not abandon firm ground to run after seductive will-o'-the-wisps and formulas more shifting and less graspable than smoke.

Arbitration is uncertainty, it is compromise, it is the certain mutilation of our rights, it is the victory of interests over equity. Mr. Herriot and our delegation must adhere unwaveringly to the pact of mutual assistance. Only at this price could our security be more or less assured.

Octave AUBERT.