Journal de Genève
- Disarmament
- The Swiss customs boundary on Lake Geneva
The preserved opening of “Disarmament” argues that progress is occurring without being noticed. A separate heading identifies the Swiss customs boundary on Lake Geneva as another subject. This partial reading covers that sentence and the customs heading only; the articles’ detailed proposals and legal reasoning are not translated.
Partial reading: disarmament heading and its second opening sentence, plus the Swiss customs-boundary heading; all remaining article text is outside the reading.
Translation
Disarmament
Disarmament
Disarmament is advancing, and nobody notices.
The Swiss customs boundary on Lake Geneva
The Swiss customs boundary on Lake Geneva
Context
Progress before weapons are reduced
The Covenant envisaged disarmament plans that governments would consider and adopt. Preparatory work could therefore advance without an immediately visible reduction of weapons. The opening sentence draws attention to that less spectacular stage of negotiation and institution-building.
Security determines what states can accept
Article 8 connected reductions with national safety and international obligations. States had to consider the protection available if they reduced their own forces. That connection made military totals inseparable from the political arrangements needed to make lower armaments acceptable.
A border that operates on water
A customs boundary determines where the movement of goods encounters fiscal and administrative control. On a lake, it must be understood through routes and vessels rather than a road crossing alone. The local heading brings international borders into the everyday movement of people and trade around Geneva.
Original
Le désarmement Le désarmement avance et personne ne le voit.
Le désarmement
Le désarmement avance et personne ne le voit.
La frontière douanière suisse sur le lac de Genève
La frontière douanière suisse sur le lac de Genève