We can look back on the Washington Conference and see the truth of some of these observations there. That Conference dealt with only a portion of the field of naval armaments, among only five powers, only three of which had any substantial naval force. The naval staffs of the countries particularly interested had to prepare in advance elaborate studies, and yet with all this the Conference lasted nearly three months. Certainly the task of a general conference on disarmament is very much greater than that of the Washington Conference was. It took nearly four months to draw up the Treaty of Versailles, which is by far the most elaborate and complex international agreement ever written. In the circumstances this was a remarkably short time. The most serious detailed criticism that I have seen of the time involved suggests that it might have been two or three weeks less. It is to be remembered, however, that the Peace Conference worked at that time under a perfectly enormous pressure from all sides to complete its task, which, as a matter of fact, would never have been completed within anything like the time taken if the decisions had not finally been left to three or four men to take. I need not dwell further on the difficulties of the details. Any one who reads the Disarmament Treaty drawn up at the Washington Conference will appreciate something of their nature; but, looking at the matter from the larger point of view, there is a question of real statesmanship involved. The possible field to be covered by a general conference on disarmament cannot perhaps be limited; but the extent to which the first discussion shall go will determine its success or failure. If it attempts to go too far, that will be fatal; if, on the other hand, the attempt is only to go a short distance now and to continue on the road further later on, the Conference may be a success, despite the fact that it will meet with the criticisms of those who want to do everything at once. {100} The question of a permanent, or rather of a recurrent, Conference on Disarmament, as proposed by the so-called American Plan,[6] is one that is inevitably bound to come up at any such Conference, for whatever the Conference does or whatever it tries to do, it will have to leave much undone. Many questions will remain open, many changes of the future will not be foreseen, and those who meet in the Conference will see when they end their work that they have only begun it. It is also to be noted again that the Conference is to fix the period within which the plan of reduction which it adopts is to be carried out. If within that time the plan is not carried out, the Council is to make a declaration rendering the Protocol null and void. The Conference is also to lay down the grounds on which the Council may make such a declaration.