In the disarmament... «Spain and the Great Powers in the Twentieth Century»
telans10 сентября 2013In the disarmament conference, the Spanish position followed the same script. The demand was made for the greatest possible disarmament compatible with a guarantee of internal public order and the fulfilment ofбinternational obligations. As a minimum programme, a drastic and efficiently controlled reduction in arms was advocated. In the defence of these proposals, the Spanish diplomatic corps was again especially active. Madariaga chaired one of the committees set up to consider disarmament, that of aerial disarmament, and took the initiative in the process that would lead to the creation of the Group of Eight, consisting of the Scandinavian countries, Belgium, the Netherlands, Czechoslovakia and Switzerland. As democratic powers without great military capacity, all of them shared with Spain the resolute desire to go down the path of disarmament and support every initiative to reinforce the principle of collective security. For that same reason, they were especially concerned that the negotiations take place with the greatest clarity and transparency, without their being hijacked by the tendency of the Great Powers to solve their differences in parallel meetings. The truth was that the Group of Eight could not do much in the face of the initiatives of the Great Powers, nor did the latter seem able to reach a minimum basis of agreement. Trapped between the French insistence on security issues, the German concentration on equal rights and the more flexible British position, the conference on disarmament dragged on throughout 1932 without any positive progress.
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