Upon these various texts, separate reports were submitted, which, being approved by the Committees respectively responsible for them, may be considered as an official commentary by the Committees. These separate reports have here been combined in order to present as a whole the work accomplished by the two Committees and to facilitate explanation. Before entering upon an analysis of the proposed texts, it is expedient to recall, in a brief historical summary, the efforts of the last four years, of which the texts are the logical conclusion. HISTORICAL STATEMENT. The problem of the reduction of armaments is presented in Article 8 of the Covenant in terms which reveal at the outset the complexity of the question and which explain the tentative manner in which the subject has been treated by the League of Nations in the last few years. "The Members of the League recognise that the maintenance of peace requires the reduction of national armaments to {159} the lowest point consistent with national safety and the enforcement by common action of international obligations." Here we see clearly expressed the need of reducing the burden which armaments imposed upon the nations immediately after the war and of putting a stop to the competition in armaments which was, in itself, a threat to the peace of the world. But, at the same time, there is recognised the duty of safeguarding the national security of the Members of the League and of safeguarding it, not only by the maintenance of a necessary minimum of troops, but also by the co-operation of all the nations, by a vast organisation for peace. Such is the meaning of the Covenant, which, while providing for reduction of armaments properly so called, recognises at the same time the need of _common action_, by all the Members of the League, with a view to compelling a possible disturber of the peace to respect his _international obligations_. Thus, in this first paragraph of Article 8, which is so short but so pregnant, mention is made of all the problems which have engaged the attention of our predecessors and ourselves and which the present Assembly has specially instructed us to solve, the problems of _collective security_ and the _reduction of armaments_. Taking up Article 8 of the Covenant, the First Assembly had already outlined a programme. At its head it placed a pronouncement of the Supreme Council: "In order to diminish the economic difficulties of Europe, armies should everywhere be reduced to a peace footing. Armaments should be limited to the lowest possible figure compatible with national security." The Assembly also called attention to a resolution of the International Financial Conference of Brussels held a short time before: