NOTE.—A statement of existing European Forces was made to Parliament on June 18, 1924 (Hansard, Parliamentary Debates [Commons], N. S., Vol. 174, page 2151). It gave the following figures:
Great Britain ........ 155,935 Latvia ............... 20,000
Germany .............. 100,000 Lithuania ............ 15,000
Austria .............. 21,500 Poland ............... 250,000
Hungary .............. 35,000 Norway ............... 16,000
Jugo Slavia .......... 130,000 Sweden ............... 32,000
Rumania .............. 125,000 Denmark .............. 27,000
Czecho Slovakia ...... 149,877 Greece ............... 110,000
Netherlands .......... 163,262 Bulgaria ............. 20,000
Italy ................ 250,000 Turkey ............... 88,000
Switzerland .......... 500,000 France ............... 732,248
Soviet Union ......... 1,003,000 Belgium .............. 86,531
Finland .............. 30,000 Spain ................ 240,113
Esthonia ............. 16,000 Portugal ............. 40,000
Total armed forces in Europe, 1924 ........... 4,356,466
CHAPTER XVII.
DEMILITARIZED ZONES.
Emphasis is laid by the Protocol on the creation and maintenance of demilitarized zones along frontiers. Article 9 of the Protocol treats of such zones, and their violation is, by Article 10 made the equivalent of a resort to war.
Any question of the real value, in the strict military sense, of agreements for demilitarized zones, may be left at one side. Undoubtedly, expert opinions differ in this matter. At least it may be said that such agreements have a value in the realm of feeling, which is as much a reality in international affairs as is a fleet of battleships.
If countries feel more secure because of the creation of such zones, certainly agreements regarding them are worth while on each side of a frontier.
As mentioned above, the question of demilitarized zones will certainly be one of the items of the agenda of the Conference on Disarmament. There are quite a number of precedents for the creation of such zones in recent international agreements. For example, the Treaty of Versailles[[1]] creates a demilitarized zone for fifty kilometres east of the Rhine. The Aaland Islands were demilitarized by the Treaty[[2]] which attributed them to Finland; and the Treaty of Lausanne[[3]] creates certain demilitarized zones, not only on each side of the Straits, but also in Western Thrace.