to find some unit in land armaments which corresponded with the battleships, and the unit selected by Lord Esher was the 300,000 regular soldiers of the peace armies in France, England, and Spain.  It was selected because it happened to be the number to which the Austrian army was reduced by treaty, and with that unit he proposed a ratio for the armies of Europe, which would leave everybody relatively in much the same position as before, but would obtain an immediate reduction in numbers of standing armies and a great reduction of expenditure.

This proposal was subjected to a great deal of criticism, and I am sorry to say nine-tenths of the criticism appears to emanate from persons who have never read the proposal at all.  It is a proposal which lends itself to a great deal of criticism, and the most effective criticism which could have been applied at the time it was presented was that it put the cart before the horse, and approached the problem from the wrong direction, for, as Lord Robert Cecil has said here this morning, what nations require is security.  Some of them have clear ideas as to the way of obtaining it, but they all want it, and before you can expect people to reduce their armaments, which are, after all, maintained mainly for the purpose of providing security, you must give them something that will take the place of armaments.

A GENERAL DEFENSIVE PACT

In June an important development took place in this Temporary Commission.  It was increased by the addition of a number of statesmen, and, amongst others, of men who ought to have been on it long ago.  Lord Robert Cecil was added, and he at once proceeded to remedy what was a real difficulty in Lord Esher’s proposals.  He put forward a plan for providing security in the form, as the Assembly of the League had asked, of a definite written proposal—­really a brief treaty.  The purport of that treaty is included in the form of resolutions, which are roughly as follows:—­No scheme for the reduction of armaments can be effective unless it is general; that in the present state of the world no Government can accept the responsibility for a serious reduction of armaments unless it is given some other equally satisfactory guarantee of the safety of its country; such guarantee can only be found in a general defensive agreement of all the countries concerned, binding them all to come to the assistance of any one of them if attacked.

A general defensive pact, with a proviso!  It is obviously unreasonable to expect the States of the American continent to be ready to come over at any moment to help in Europe.  It is obviously unreasonable to expect the States of Europe to bind themselves to come and fight in Asia.  Therefore, there was this proviso added that an obligation to come to the assistance of the attacked country should be limited to those countries which belonged to the same quarter of the globe.  Thus, you see, you are getting the obligation of the League into regional application.  Personally my own conviction is that this is the line upon which many of the functions of the League will develop.