A.—s

anxieties of the peoples of Europe. If this should come about, one happy result would be a reduction of the enormous Budgets of war expenditure indulged in by many of these Powers. There is another question. I should inform you that so far as thejproposals of the Polish delegation were concerned, in deference to the wishes of Great Britain and other Powers, the Polish delegate amended his orginal motion so as to make his attack rather upon wars of aggression than upon every kind of possible conflict. The result was that the Third Committee found no difficulty in confirming the attitude of the Polish delegate and sending]jforward to the Assembly a recommendation of his final motion, which was in the following terms : — " The Assembly —recognizing the solidarity which unites the community of nations ; being inspired by a firm desire for the maintenance of general peace ; being convinced that a war of aggression can never serve as a means of settling international disputes, and is in consequence an international crime ; considering that a solemn renunciation of all wars of aggression would tend to create an atmosphere of general confidence calculated to facilitate the progress of the work undertaken with a view to disarmament —declares (1) that all wars of aggression are, and shall always be, prohibited ; (2) that every pacific means must be employed to settle disputes, of every description, which may arise between States. The Assembly declares that the States members of the League are under an obligation to conform to these principles." This motion was adopted by the Assembly. Another aspect of the work of the Third Committee dealt with the question of civil aviation and military aviation. Upon investigation the cortlmittee found that in certain countries there is at present a close connection between the development of civil aviation and that of military aviation. Obviously this connection will lead to serious difficulties in the limiting of armaments without at the same time hampering civil aviation. The committee was unanimous in declaring that it is desirable that the development of civil aviation should be directed solely towards economic ends to the exclusion of military interests. There can be no question in certain countries where aviation is developing that the Governments (directly or indirectly) are requiring a type of airship or an equipment which, while suitable for civil purposes, may easily be transformed quickly into a machine suitable for the purpose of war. It was made clear that it was against this sort of thing that the resolutions of the Third Committee were directed. As regards the Finnish delegation's suggestion that financial assistance should be found by other Powers for any Power aggressively attacked, you will observe from the report to which I have already referred you that the various delegates on the Third Committee found the greatest difficulties in giving any sort of guarantee. Indeed, it seemed to me rather amusing to find that while a considerable amount of sympathy was expressed, 110 Power in particular seemed at all anxious to put its hand in its pocket to help the unfortunate Power which might be attacked. Consequently, there was complete unanimity in sending this proposal to a committee for further consideration. The question of the supervision of private manufacture of arms and ammunition again came before the Third Committee. It was clear that the problem had not been solved. The main difficulty lay in the fact that some of the States desired to bring in State manufacture as well as private manufacture. Eventually the Assembly adopted the following resolution : — " The Assembly —having noted the report of the special committee appointed by the Council to draft a convention on the supervision of the private manufacture and the publicity regarding the manufacture of arms and ammunition and of implements of war; reaffirming the importance it attaches to the establishment of a convention which would enable nonproducing and producing countries to be placed on an equal footing, as contemplated in the declaration embodied in the Final Act at the Conference for the Supervision of the International Trade in Arms and Ammunition and of Implements of War; convinced that the establishment of a convention for the supervision of private manufacture and the publicity regarding manufacture is of the highest importance for the putting into force of the Convention on the International Trade —requests the Council to convey its views to the special committee, in order that the latter may agree upon a single text which will enable the Council to convene an international conference as speedily as possible." In conclusion, I may add that the evident good feeling which obtained when the Third Committee's resolutions were carried by the Assembly was a considerable encouragement for the future . indeed, when one remembers that there was at the beginning of the session a strong sentiment of discontent in the breasts of many representatives, the fact that this discontent largely gave way at the end of our deliberations to feelings of mutual confidence and respect, augurs well for the future; FOURTH COMMITTEE. Contributions in Arrears. As usual, this question was referred to a small sub-committee, whose report was adopted by the Fourth Committee for presentation to the Assembly. Full particulars of the unpaid arrears and of the position at the end of August will be found in Annexes B and C to Document A. 47. Of the ten States in arrears, two are regularly paying contributions over a term of years as authorized by special decisions of the Assembly, and two have paid up since the issue of the statement ; whilst a fifth, a part of whose debt represents certain arrears compounded by special arrangement with the Assembly, has paid the annual instalments due under the arrangement. There is therefore some improvement, and the sub-committee had to give consideration to the question in so

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