The Geneva Protocol, by David Hunter Miller

CHAPTER XVI. 64
CHAPTER XVI.
THE DISARMAMENT CONFERENCE.
Under Article 17 of the Protocol, a Disarmament Conference to which all States of the world are to be invited
is to meet at Geneva on June 15th, 1925. It is made the duty of the Council to draw up a general programme
for reduction and limitation of armaments to be laid before the Conference and to be communicated to the
various Governments not later than March 15th, 1925. The provision to this effect says that the Council shall
give due regard to the undertakings of the Protocol regarding sanctions, but the preparation of this general
programme is in substantial accord with Article 8 of the Covenant.
The Assembly adopted a quite elaborate resolution[1] regarding this Conference. This resolution makes seven
or eight suggestions in general terms for the agenda of the Disarmament Conference. While the resolution was
adopted, it was pointed out in the discussion that the Council has a perfectly free hand in the matter and that
the requests of the Assembly regarding the agenda were nothing more than requests. There is perhaps no
occasion to go over them in detail, but one or two points may be mentioned.
The matter of demilitarized zones figures in this Assembly list. As such zones are specifically mentioned in
Articles 9 and 10 of the Protocol there is no doubt that this is one of the questions that would be on the
agenda. Another suggestion of the Assembly for the agenda of the Conference is "the control and
investigation of armaments in the contracting States." Such control and investigation were a part of the
so-called American Plan,[2] and in view of the fact that the control and investigation of the armaments of the
former enemy States are now before the League, there can be no doubt that this matter also would be on the
agenda of the Disarmament Conference prepared by the Council.
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It was pointed out previously[3] that the date of the Disarmament Conference may be postponed. It now
seems very likely that it will be.[4] Indeed, I feel that there was a little too much optimism at Geneva in fixing
the date as early as June 15th, 1925, involving the completion of a programme by March 15th.
Of course, in getting up a programme of general disarmament, and an agenda for the Conference on
Disarmament, it is true that the Council would have available the advice of the Permanent Military
Commission and of the different bureaus of the Secretariat. Even so, the task of finishing these preparations in
three or four months, getting them approved by the Council and also by at least the chief of the interested
Governments, is one that seems to me to be very doubtful of accomplishment.
It is perhaps not generally understood what an amount of work and how great a number of questions are
involved in such discussions as are proposed. There are something like twenty European Governments that are
vitally interested. Some of these Governments have quite different points of view and all of them have their
military, naval, air and chemical programmes in force and subject to the control of their own Parliaments.[4]
The idea of a general reduction of armaments involves, at least provisionally, the recasting of the entire
military system of Europe. It is complicated by numerous possibilities of regional agreements which in
themselves would create new problems of complexity.
Furthermore, it is not generally recognized that a great deal of the work of such a Conference as this has to be
done in advance. Doubtless no Conference in plenary session ever drew up a paper; no Legislature ever wrote
a law. The utmost that any such body can do is to consider concrete proposals drawn up often by one
individual, but certainly always by very small groups. I venture to say that ten lawyers could hardly draw a
{99} deed without appointing a sub-committee. The success or failure of the Disarmament Conference will
very largely depend on the care and judgment used in the preparations for its meeting.