Mr, Ramsay MacDonald, in his speech, after referring to his ardent satisfaction that this should be the ceeasion of His Majesty's frst public speech since his illness, welt upon the universal burden of arms and the manifold difficulties in the way of escape therefrom, all of which difficulties, he said,—were mainly due to one source-lack of Mr, MacDonald con-jons us Up spell-bound in nesses of militarism. Wo should break the spell and seek Peace and security by other mean:
"The whole world," he declared, turning its eyes' to us tod and expects that we will delibera and negotiate on the assumption that, having put our names to the Pacts of Pence, we mean to respect our. signatu The world above all demanded agreement to'arrest the competition in armaments which had recently begun and showed itself both in the types and numbers of ships.
"If we are not careful," he said, 1 once more be' involved ish competition such led the outbreak of war Mr. MacDonald then proceeded to outline the nature of the Conference's tasks, and referred to the Progress made in securing peace tinea 1919, inludlog the Covenant of the League of Nations, the Kel-logy Pact, the entry of the United States into the permanent Court of International Justice and the increase of the, signatories to the! Optional Clause. But, he declared, absolute security for peace and Justice was not yet found.
Mr. MacDonald emphasized that the steps towards disarmament must be international agreements, ubject to review at reasonably frequent intervals. He affirmed that in the naval programmes of the leading Naval powers there was margin between real security needs and actual or projected strengths, and the world expected that this. Gonferenee would eliminate that margin, Two assumptions he said would, perhaps, smooth and shorten the work of the conference. Firstly, the different needs imposed zeographica} position—world responsibility—and points of attack in the event of war. Secondly, armaments J—naval and air forces—must, for practical purposes be discussed separately, "If we are willing to make a good naval agreement now" continued Mr. MacDonald," when it comes to be reviewed a few years hence, our attitude will depend upon what other Powers have done in the meantime as regards land and ale armaments.
'The way of Grent Britain", he id, "is on the sea, its flag is the flag' of the sea. Our Navy is no mere superfluity to us. It is ws, 80 if this country can make a contribution to peace which will be one of deeds as well as words it must be-as 1 naval power".
"That is'why, declared Mr. Mac-Donald, President Hoover, last June, through his new Ambassador ta London proposed to me that we should explore our differences once more with.a view to asking the participants in the Washington Conference of 1922 to re-assemble to try and agree: upon an. equilibrium and: to submit-te the Preparatory
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.