§ 38. Mr. MANDERasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs the terms of reference of the four sub-committees of the Disarmament Conference recently set up at Geneva; which British Minister, if any, will attend; the names of the chairmen; the date when each will commence or has commenced work; and when the General Commission meets again?
§ Mr. EDENThe terms of reference of the four committees of the Disarmament Conference referred to by the hon. Member are' contained in the Resolution adopted by the General Commission on the 8th June, the text of which has been published in the Press. I am circulating the text of the Resolution in the OFFICIAL 196 REPORT. The Committee on Security, the chairman of which is Monsieur Politis, held its first meeting on the 18th June; the Committee on Guarantees of Execution and Supervision, under the chairmanship of Monsieur Bourquin, held its first meeting on the 13th June; the chairman of the Air Committee is Monsieur de Madariaga and the chairman of the Committee on the Control of the Manufacture of and Traffic in Arms is Monsieur Scavenius. The chairmen are empowered to fix the dates for the first meetings of the two latter committees. It is not intended that any British Minister should attend the meetings of the committees at the present stage. No date has been fixed for the next meeting of the General Commission.
§ Mr. MANDERCan my right hon. Friend say who will represent the British Government? If Members of the Government do not themselves attend, surely there will be some civil servants, and cannot my right hon. Friend give the names?
§ Mr. EDENThe Government will be represented but no Minister will be present, nor will Ministers from any other Government.
§ Mr. MANDERHas it not been the practice in the past to give the names of those who will be representing the British Government, and will not my right hon. Friend be good enough to give the names?
§ Mr. MANDERIs it not a fact that there is a precedent, and will not my right hon. Friend be good enough to look it up?
§ Following is the text of the Resolution:
§ The General Commission:
§ Taking into consideration the resolutions submitted to it by the delegations of the six Powers, the Turkish delegation and the delegation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics respectively;
§ Taking account of the clarification of its work, resulting from the French memorandum of 1st January, 1934, the Italian memorandum of 4th January, 1934, the United Kingdom memorandum of 29th January, 1934, and the German declaration of 16th April, 1934;
§ Convinced of the necessity of the Conference continuing its work with a view to 197 arriving at a general convention for the reduction and limitation of armaments;
§ Resolved to continue without delay the investigations already undertaken:
§ I.
§ Invites the Bureau to seek, by whatever means it deems appropriate and with a view to the general acceptance of a Disarmament (Convention, a solution of the outstanding problems, without prejudice to the private conversations on which Governments will desire to enter in order to facilitate the attainment of final success by the return of Germany to the conference.
§ II.
§ Having regard Co the peculiar importance presented by the study and solution of certain problems to which attention was drawn at the beginning of the general discussion,
§ Takes the following decisions:
§ (1) Security.
§ (a) Since the results of the earlier work of the conference have enabled certain regional security agreements to be concluded in Europe during the past year, the General Commission decides to appoint a special committed to conduct such preliminary studies as it may consider appropriate in order to facilitate the conclusion of further agreements of the same nature which may be negotiated outside the conference. It would be for the General Com mission to determine the relationship, if any, of these agreements to the General Convention.
§ (b) The General Commission decides to appoint a special committee to study the question of guarantees of execution, and to resume the work relating to supervision.
§ (2) Air Forces.
§ The General Commission instructs its Air Committee to resume forthwith the study of the questions mentioned in its resolution of 23rd July, 1932, under the heading: 1. "Air Forces."*
§ (3) Manufacture of and Trade in Arms.
§ The General Commission requests its special Committee on questions relating to the manufacture of and trade in arms to resume its work forthwith, and, in the light of the statements made by the United States delegate at the meeting of 29th May, 1934, to report to it as early as possible on the solutions it recommends.
§ These Committees will carry on their work on parallel lines; and it will be coordinated by the Bureau.
§ III.
§ The General Commission leaves it to the Bureau to take the necessary steps at the proper time to ensure that when the President convenes the General Commission it will have before it as far as possible a complete draft Convention.
§ IV.
§ Recognising that the proposal of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics delegation that the Conference be declared a permanent institution under the title of the 198 Peace Conference calls for careful study, the General Commission requests the President to submit that proposal to the Governments.
§ * The Conference, deeply impressed with the danger overhanging civilisation from bombardment from the air in the event of future conflict, and determined to take all practicable measures to provide against this danger, records at this stage of its work the following conclusions:
- 1. Air attack against the civilian population shall be absolutely prohibited;
- 2. The High Contracting Parties shall agree as between themselves that all bombardment from the air shall be abolished, subject to agreement with regard to measures to be adopted for the purpose of rendering effective the observance of this rule.
§ These measures should include the following:
- (a) there shall be effected a limitation by number and a restricting by characteristics of military aircraft;
- (b) civil aircraft shall be submitted to regulation and full publicity. Further, civil aircraft not conforming to the specified limitations shall be subjected to an international regime (except for certain regions where such a regime is not suitable) such as to prevent effectively the misuse of such civil aircraft.