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however, he considered an actual guarantee against war. Total and general disarmament is the only effective guarantee against war and its devastating effects.

The Soviet Delegation submitted to the Preparatory Commission for the Disarmament Conference a draft convention for total disarmament, to be realized in the course of four years. This was four years ago. and it will hardly be denied that if our proposal had been accepted at the time, the events in the Far East would not have been no threats of a new world war, and the economic crisis, now being almost universally experienced would undoubtedly have been less acute.

Security Of The Soviet Union Menaced

The country I represent is in a less favourable position as regards security than other countries. Only 14 years ago, it was the object of armed attack on all its frontiers, of blockade and of political and economic boycott. For 14 years it has been the object of indescribable slander and hostile campaigns. Even now many States, including one of the strongest naval powers, do not conceal their hostility to it, even to the extent of refusing to establish normal peaceful relations, and many States maintaining normal relations with it have refused to conclude or confirm pacts of non-aggression. The present events in the Far East, which have evoked universal alarm, cannot but cause special anxiety in the Soviet Union, owing to its geographical nearness to the theatre of these events, where huge armies are operating, and where anti-Soviet Russian emigres are mobilizing their forces. Despite all this I am empowered to declare here the readiness of the Soviet Union to disarm to the same extent and at the same rate to which the other powers first and foremost those actually at its borders may agree.

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[[caption]] Working girls in Russia marching at a Sports Meet [[/caption]]

To Organize Peace By Creating Security Against War

But before taking up the question of partial disarmament, the Soviet Delegation wishes to appeal to the conference as follows.

The political and economic differences existing between various States have become considerably intensified since the Great War and, owing to the crisis are inevitably and rapidly leading to a new armed conflict between nations. This conflict, owing to modern improvements in the weapons of destruction, threatens humanity with incredible disasters, unprecedented devastation. The impending menace of war is causing universal alarm and arousing universal suspicion. This alarm and suspicion, together with the burden of taxation imposed upon the people for the maintenance by States of huge armed forces are nourishing and intensifying the present economic crisis, which is felt in all its weight first and foremost by the working classes. In these circumstances the task of the hour is not the repetition of any attempt to achieve the reduction of armaments or war budgets, the realization of which is bound to come up against tremendous obstacles, but the actual prevention of war, through the creation of effective security against war. This task can only be carried out by means of total and general disarmament.

The Soviet Delegation will move a resolution to this effect, convinced as it is that there would be no external obstacle to the carrying out of general disarmament if the governments here represented show their readiness for it.

The Tasks Of The U.S.S.R. Are Peaceful Tasks.

The sole aim of the Soviet Government is the building up of socialism on the territory of the Soviet Union. and in the face of the successful accomplishment of the first Five-Year Plan of colossal achievements in every sphere of economic life, it seems to the Soviet Delegation that what has been obvious from the beginning must by now be as clear as daylight to all and sundry -- namely that the Soviet Union requires neither the increase of territory, nor interference in the affairs of other nations, to achieve its aim, and could therefore do without army, navy, military aviation and all other forms of armed forces. It does, however, require the assurance that there will be no attempts against Soviet territory either and that other States will not interfere in its internal affairs and tha its peaceful economic construction will not be tampered with from without. It will only feel this assurance if other States also agree to give up their armed forces.

Now, when the whole world is going through an unprecedented economic crisis, which is shaking the edifice of the capitalist system to its foundations, the masses of the people suffering from employment to an extent hitherto unknown, from universal wage reductions, threatened by still further economic upheavals, the full burden of which the ruling classes readily shift on to their shoulders, must be relieved as far as possible from the threat of the catastrophy of war, which the course of the economic crisis is making more and more imminent. Security against war must be created. This security can never be achieved by roundabout ways, but only by the direct way of total general disarmament. This is no communist slogan.

This Triumph Of Socialism is the Supreme Guarantee Of Peace

The Society Delegation knows that the triumph of socialist principles, removing the causes giving rise to armed conflicts, is the only absolute guarantee of peace. So long, however as these principles prevail in one sixth of the world, there

Transcription Notes:
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