The World Disarmament Conference met in the shadow of rising fascist political power in Japan, Germany, and Italy. It ultimately collapsed in failure over confusion and uncertainty about how to address the mounting militarist danger. The first shock came before the conference even began when Japan attacked Shanghai and proceeded with the virtual annexation of its puppet regime in Manchuria. Peace groups responded to these outrages by demanding League of Nations action against Japan. They criticized the British government and other Western powers for selling arms to Japan and doing nothing to counter Tokyo’s aggression. They pointed to the bombing of Shanghai as validation of their concerns about the horrific consequences of aerial warfare. Their demands for an enforceable international ban on bombing and more vigorous general disarmament efforts intensified.
They recognized that the punitive provisions of the treaty were not only unfair but politically counterproductive and that German resentments were feeding militarism and revanchism. Throughout the 1920s pacifist and internationalist groups lobbied for the acceptance of Germany as an equal partner with other nations. Progress was made in this direction with the Locarno Treaties of 1925, which guaranteed the Franco-German border, and with Germany’s entry into the League in 1926. Peace groups favored granting Germany equal status in armaments in the hope that this would remove any justification for German rearmament.
Parity in armaments within the context of a world disarmament agreement would be the best way of both satisfying German national claims and reducing the threat of an arms race that could lead to war. In Britain Lord Cecil and the LNU argued that a universal arms limitation agreement would make it more difficult for Germany to seek special privileges. London’s reluctance to consider general disarmament, LNU leaders insisted, was dangerous and counterproductive. The failure of the disarmament process would weaken the position of moderates in Germany and strengthen the rearmament demands of German nationalists.
The rising Nazi party was not satisfied with mere equality of status, of course. Hitler used the discrimination to which Germany was subjected as an excuse to justify expansionist military aims. Even before the Nazis took power in March 1933, the Berlin government demanded a revision of the naval disarmament agreements to grant Germany the same privileges offered the other major powers.
In October 1933 Hitler announced that Germany was leaving the World Disarmament Conference and withdrawing from the League of Nations in protest over the refusal of the major powers to grant military parity. Germany’s action and Japan’s subsequent withdrawal from the Washington and London naval accords brought an end to the multilateral disarmament process. These ominous developments were harbingers of the resurgent militarism that was soon to engulf the world.
World Disarmament Conference
