Jasper County Democrat, Volume 2, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 July 1899 — GERMANY REJECTS SCHEME. [ARTICLE]

GERMANY REJECTS SCHEME.

Colonel Von t'chwatzboffPnts a Check on Disarmament Plans. The Russian proposals for a standstill of armament hare been submitted to a sub-committee of the peace conference at The Hague. This move was all that saved them from immediate rejection. Their eventual rejection is sure. Col. Gross von Schwatzhoff of the German delegation made a speech against the disarmament scheme which is the sensation of the conference so far. In reply to the Czar's plea for disarmament on the ground that a maintenance of large armaments is crushing the nations, he said that Germany was not being ruined and her wealth, contentedness and standard of life were daily increasing. He said further that a reduction of peace forces was only one small step toward a reduction of offensive power. Length of military service, development of railway, enabling rapid mobilization and economical conditions were all factors in a nation’s military strength. He concluded by saying with amazing frankness that to only consider the non-in-crease of armaments and leave out all these other factors might seem ft plausible scheme for peace to an outsider, but to a military expert it was so manifestly absurd that he wondered it could ever have been put forward in earnest. Many of the delegates say that Col. von Schwatzhoff’s speech was a smashing blok to Russian arguments. The German pence delegates have privately informed their colleagues that they are now instructed to support the principle of arbitration.