In this assessment, the 1930 London agreement was the last tangible interwar arms-control success, while the Washington treaty remained the movement's high point. Preparatory work for the World Disarmament Conference began in 1925, but years of negotiation produced no meaningful treaty before the effort ended in the mid-1930s. Arthur Henderson, a former British foreign secretary connected with naval diplomacy, chaired the conference. Germany demanded military equality while the meeting was supposed to reduce armaments, and walkouts became instruments for making political points. The bounded categories and ratios of naval treaties proved difficult to extend to general land and air disarmament.
Notable Point · 26:46-29:39
Why wider interwar disarmament failed
The World Disarmament Conference spent years trying to extend naval arms-control success to land and air forces but produced no comparable treaty.