the military legislation governing the system of recruitment, training and period of service of permanent, non-permanent forces and formstions organized on a military basis. Statistical data were included with regard to the numerical strength of the armed forces, the expenditure for national defence, list of warships, etc.

26. The principal subjects covered were:

(a) Organs of military command and administration;
(b) Territorial military areas;

(c) Composition of the armed forces;

(d) Police forces;

(e) Formations organized on a military basis;
(f) Recruiting system and period of service;
(g) Cadres;

(h) Pre-military training;

(i) Effectives;

(i) List of war vessels;

(k) Expenditure on national defence.

27. Since the information required under the last paragraph of Article 8 also included data related to industries adaptable to warlike purposes, the Third Committee of the Assembly stated in its report of 27 September 1923 that the year-book should include data concerning the potential military power of States. Accordingly, the Armaments Year-Book contained a chapter entitled "Industries Capable of being used for War Purposes", which included statistical data on output, imports and exports of such raw materials as coal, oil, iron. manganese, copper, lead, zinc, bauxite, nickel, etc., and a number of chemical products. This chapter was later omitted because the data were already covered by other statistical publications of the League. E. "YEAR-BOOK ON THE TRADE IN ARMS, AMMUNITION AND IMPLEMENTS OF WAR"

28. In addition to the Armaments Year-Book the Secretariat was entrusted in 1924 with the publication of a year-book on the trade in arms and ammunition. This publication was prepared on the request of the Temporary Mixed Commission and was intended for the preliminary work relating to the expected convention for the trade in arms and control of the private manufacture of arms. Taking into account the fact that practically all countries published official statistics relating to international trade, it was not considered necessary to secure the collaboration of governments, and the monographs included in this year-book were not officially certified by the respective governments. These monographs condensed and classified the official data according to an established scheme. The year-book covered the international trade in arms and ammunition of practically the whole world.

II. THE EXCHANGE OF INFORMATION IN CONNECTION WITH THE DRAFT DISARMAMENT CONVENTION

F. CONSIDERATION BY THE PREPARATORY COMMISSION FOR THE DISARMAMENT CONFERENCE

(a) Relation between the exchange of information and the reduction of

armaments

29. The last paragraph of Article 8 of the Covenant did not link the question of the exchange of information to disarmament. It was only when the Preparatory Commission for the Disarmament Conference began in 1926 to consider the question of the exchange of information that the question was effectively linked to the question of the reduction of armaments. This came about through the submission by the Belgian delegation of a proposal which was referred to Sub-Commission A. The Sub-Commission was requested to consider the following questions concerning the exchange of military information: (1) the organization at Geneva of a permanent service for the collection of information received from the different governments; (2) the consequences from the military point of view of inserting in the Disarmament Convention provisions for commissions of inspection similar to those in the Statute of the International Labour Organisations; (3) whether previous experience in the supervision of disarmament pointed to the possibility from a military point of view of general supervision.

(b) The Report of Sub-Commission A on methods for the exchange of information

30. Sub-Commission A considered three texts, of which two were unanimously submitted. (1) The first of these texts would have continued the existing practice of the League for the collection and publication by the Secretariat of the League of general information and statistics concerning armaments in an Armaments Year-Book. (2) The second text which went somewhat further than the first, would have obligated the signatories of a Disarmament Convention to publish periodically in their official journals or to send periodically to the Secretariat statistical returns according to a uniform type, concerning those of their armaments which were subject to limitation. This text also proposed the continuation of the Armaments YearBook.

31. The Sub-Commission observed in regard to these two methods that they were easy to apply and that their implementation did not require the creation of any new organs.

32. The delegations of Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Finland, France, the Netherlands, Poland, Rumania, and the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (Yugoslavia) proposed a third text in SubCommission A, which went further than either of the foregoing texts. These delegations regarded the Armaments Year-Book as inadequate for purposes of a Disarmament Convention because it was limited to public information not obtained on the authority of the governments concerned. Concerning the second text they observed that, in failing to provide for the drawing up of reports based on the information to be supplied by governments, it did not permit the following up of the execution of the convention or the evolution of national military

organization. Accordingly these delegations proposed that the information to be supplied by governments under the second text above (which these delegations would have extended to cover armaments not subject to limitation but capable of "influencing the effectiveness of such limitations"), should form the basis for the "subsequent preparation of periodical and objective reports on the carrying out of the Convention for the limitation of Armaments," which were to be prepared by the Secretariat and discussed and issued by a Commission to be set up by the Disarmament Conference.

33. The delegations of Chile, Italy, Japan, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States opposed this third method on the grounds that it would involve international supervision or control, to which they were opposed.

(c) Part IV (Exchange of Information) of the Preparatory Commission's draft Convention

34. The subsequent discussion in the Preparatory Commission turned upon the second and third methods, namely, whether to have periodic returns of information by governments with or without supervision. In the end the Preparatory Commission adopted a scheme substantially in accordance with the third method described above for the submission of information by governments to a Permanent Disarmament Commission through the Secretary-General.

35. The obligation of governments to furnish information was specifically limited to the armaments subject to limitation in the draft Convention. In this connexion the representative of France at s meeting of the Preparatory Commission of 22 November 1930, emphasized that "we are not now discussing the application of Article 8 of the Covenant . . . We are now discussing the exchange of information for the purpose of our Convention, and we are discussing publicity within the limits of the Convention."

36. The information submitted by governments to the SecretaryGeneral was to be published by him. The Permanent Disarmament Commission, which was to be set up to follow the execution of the Convention, was annually to "make at least one report on the information submitted to it . . . and on any other information that may reach it from a responsible source, and that it may consider worth attention, showing the situation as regards the fulfillment of the present Convention."

37. The provisions relating to the exchange of information were included in Part IV (Exchange of Information) of the draft Convention; those relating to the functions of the Permanent Disarmament Commission were included in Part VI (Miscellaneous).

38. Part IV (Exchange of Information) of the draft Convention framed by the Preparatory Commission contained 38 articles [for text see the annex], the principal provisions of which dealt with the following points:

1. For States with systems of compulsory preparatory military training, the number of youths receiving such training;

2. Length of service of effectives recruited by conscription; 3. Total annual expenditure on the upkeep, purchase, and manufacture of land and naval war materials by categories of such materials;

4. Details of all vessels of war laid down or completed by or for each contracting State or within its jurisdiction;

5. Name and tonnage of any merchant-vessel with decks stiffened for the mounting of guns not exceeding 6.1 inches;

6. Aircraft: maximum figures attained in each year in respect of number and total horse-power and for dirigibles the total volume;

7. Number and total horse-power of civil aeroplanes and dirigibles registered by each party, with the expenditure incurred on civil aviation by the Government and local authorities;

8. Total of actual expenditure on the land, sea and air armaments of each contracting party.

39. Model tables were annexed to Part IV. In these tables each government was to supply information respecting the average daily number of effectives in its army, navy and air forces, and information respecting the number of its aircraft. There were no model tables for land war material since the draft Convention limited such war material only by limitation of expenditure. The tables for effectives included separate columns for the armed forces stationed in the home country and overseas territories; the same information was requested for para-military formations. With respect to the airforces there were tables concerning the number and total horse-power of aeroplanes stationed in the home country and overseas; an additional column was reserved for aeroplanes on aircraft carriers. With respect to naval forces the model tables (which were annexed to Part II) covered naval vessels by categories and tonnage. A model statement concerning expenditure on armaments was completed by the Preparatory Commission's Committee of Experts on Budgetary Questions only after the final adjournment of the Commission.

G. CONSIDERATION BY THE DISARMAMENT CONFERENCE

(a) The Questionnaire on Armaments, 1931

40. On 20 January 1931 the Council of the League instructed the Secretary-General to take steps to obtain from governments particulars concerning their armaments, for the information of the conference. At the suggestion of the United Kingdom delegation, approved by the Council, governments were requested to furnish this information in accordance with the model tables annexed to the draft Convention. In addition on 24 January 1931 the Council requested that governments furnish information concerning their armaments expenditure on the basis of the tables prepared by the Committee of Experts on Budgetary Questions.

41. Practically all governments replied to the questionnaire. Certain governments accompanied their returns with more or less extensive explanations or reservations. The French Government, for instance, recalled that in its memorandum of 16 July 1931 it had indicated its reasons for believing that comparison of the real position of the armaments of the various countries and a determination of the military value of such armaments, was impossible on the basis of mere statistics. Previously the French Government in a letter to the Secretary-General of 28 April 1931 had expressed the opinion that uniformity of returns was not an adequate basis for the comparison of national armaments, which could be made only in the light of the explanations and commentaries of each individual country.

42. The military systems in different countries were of such variety and complexity that the model tables framed by the Preparatory Commission required alteration or extension in many cases, and the returns were accompanied in some cases by elaborate notes to ensure correct interpretation of the data. The United Kingdom reply of 4 August 1931 contained more than 60 pages of tables and notes in the League's Official Journal. However, the model tables served as the working basis for all the returns.

43. The use of the questionnaire raised the question of simultaneous submission of replies. The USSR delegation in a letter to the Council on 25 April 1931 raised the question of the procedure to be followed for communicating to governments the information furnished by the different States. The Rapporteur of the Council suggested that governments should be asked to forward their replies before a certain date in order that they might be published and communicated to governments at the same time. This suggestion was adopted by the Council.

(b) Exchange of information under the United Kingdom draft Convention 44. The draft Convention submitted by the United Kingdom delegation which was accepted by the Conference on 8 June 1933 as a basis for the future Convention, did not, with the exception of Articles 34 and 35 relating to war vessels, specify the information to be exchanged. The United Kingdom delegation observed that the provisions on exchange of information would depend in the main on the limitations and restrictions to be imposed by the other parts of the Convention. No further action was taken by the Conference with regard to the exchange of information, except for a provisional list of documents and a Model Statement drawn up by the Special Committee on Effectives in November 1933, which government would be requested, under the Convention, to furnish to the Secretariat.

45. Thereafter the work of the League with regard to the exchange of military information was limited to the publication of the Armaments Year-Book, the last edition of which was issued in May 1940 and covered the military position of the previous years.

ANNEX

DRAFT CONVENTION OF THE PREPARATORY COMMISSION FOR THE DISARMAMENT CONFERENCE

PART IV. EXCHANGE OF INFORMATION

ARTICLE 30

For each category of effectives defined in the model tables annexed to this Article, the exchange of information each year shall apply to the average daily number of effectives reached during the preceding year in the land, sea and air armed forces and formations organized on a military basis of each of the High Contracting Parties.

For this purpose, each of the High Contracting Parties will forward to the Secretary-General of the League of Nations, within...... months after the end of each year, the necessary information to enable the said tables to be drawn up in the case of such Party. Each Party shall attach to this statement an explanatory note showing the ele ments on which the figures supplied are based, and stating, in particu