-8-
raise the guestion of how far Russia, Japan, Italy and
the Danube and Balkan countries would be prepared
to cooperate. An examination of the probabilities in
respect of these countries is not very promising.
The consideration of the position of Russia suggests
that it is extremely unlikely that the Soviet would be
prepared to agree. The case of Japan is more doubtful
as considerable pressure could be put upon her, poss-
ibly in association with the United States of America,
once Britain and France were freed from the obligations
which at present fetter their actions in the Far East. Japan's
agreement, however, could only be obtained if she were
relieved from the menace of Russia and the position in
the Far East had been sorted out in such a way as to
afford to Japan a reasonable opportunity to live and
provide for her growing population.
With the overwhelming strength that France and the
United Kingdom would possess at the end of a victorious
war, Italy could probably be forced to agree but the
measure of pressure that could reasonably be applied to
Italy would be dependent upon what it had been posslble
to do with Russia. The Danube and Balkan countries
would present a considerable problem which it would
obviously be Impossible to solve with a strong and
aggressive Russia intervening in these areas. In any
event a disarmament agreement in these countries
could only follow upon the settlement of many difficult
territorial and racial questions.
Assuming, however, that these difficult political
problems could be resolved and agreement obtained
among the nations to another disarmament conference, it
is necessary to consider the problems that would have to be
faced