BRITAIN'S REARMAMENT

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21733, 16 March 1936, Page 18

BRITAIN'S REARMAMENT

TO TB* EDITOR OF THE PRESS. gi r _lt has been said that publicity, besides being the main agency of reform, is also the main agency of prevention, but it must be admitted that it is impossible for the public to see more than the merest fraction of the scenes behind the cable news. Back in 1914 we note a certain Humbert von' Wendel, a member of the German Reichstag, who after the Treaty of Versailles became Humbert de Wendel. From him we come to his brother. Francois de Wendel Regent of the Bank of France, president of the French Steel Trust, member of the Chamber of Deputies, and a controlling factor m such papers as “Le Temps, Le Matin,” and “L’Echo de Pans,” which combination constitutes an immense instrument for the maintenance of suspicion and ingrained prejudice. Francois de Wendel with Eugene Schneider have a controlling interest in the huge Schneider-Creusot armament company, of which Skoda is a subsidiary. It is not so long ago that Hitler, when challenged in court to deny having received liberal contributions to his campaign funds through Skoda from the above source, stormed from the witness stand, and. was subsequently fined for contempt of court. In passing, it is interesting to note that French Government foreign loans still insist bn relating themselves to Schneider-Creusot orders, and it is unnecessary to study the transactions of the Japanese firm of Mitsui or those through the Banque de L’Union Pansienne to find that out. But foreign policy must deal with economics as both Leger and Massigli at the Quai d’Orsay will concur. Great Britain s atttiude to the balance of power in Europe must be studied from her position as the largest empire in the world, and her prestige in the world of finance, Germany must be considered as a neighbour of France, controlling the second largest and most compact empire, and Holland controlling the third largest and most vulnerable, . x J In March, 1931, when Austria and Germany announced the agreement for a customs union, France immediately withdrew her Vienna balance, which eventually resulted in the Bank of England lending the Austrian National Bank some £7.000.000. After Hitlers preliminary victory, France drew down her balance in Berlin and eventually succeeded in starting an external run on German debtors, which, although stopped temporarily by the Hoover moratorium, eventually resulted in collapse, and produced a financial panic throughout the world which focused on London. Having lent money to Austria and Germany, having extended herself to protect the Dominions, Britain was now in a vulnerable position, and France once again precipitated things by beginning to withdraw funds from London, which of course stimulated other withdrawals and forced Britain from the gold standard, wrecking the existing credit structure of the world It is not contended from the foregoing that France is the villain, of post-war diplomacy, but she stands at the top in armament expenditure and illustrates the armament-makers influence in the industrial, social, and political affairs of Europe, while showing the tremendous handicap the disciples of Quiddi and Brussin must work under. Furthermore, in times like the present of acute international crisis, after months of diplomatic fencing and playing for positions, of quid pro quos, it is interesting to note that in the recent* British eclaircissement, Empire problems are assuming their proper perspective in relation to balance of power in Europe, that British interests in the Pacific far exceed those of Indo-China, that Frances source of raw materials will continue In time of war only if the seas are open to French commerce, and. to force the German people into communism is a political possibility. Colonel J, S. Gallieni, the founder of the French colonial empire, was on th© eVe of an up-country expedij.tion in Tdigjdn* He asked his sub-

out from France the latest works on colonial, military strategy. Lyautey produced them, with some satisfaction. “Now,” said Gallleni, “we will tie them up securely in a bundle and go out to learn our lessons from experience”. If we could do this with ’our pacts and use our hindsight to learn the lesson that ten million dead wrote in blood,’ we would, realise that justice must for ever remain a guiding principle of social organisation to sentient beings, anywhere in that small sample of the actual universe which lies within the range of some hundred million light years.—Yours, etc ' WHITE WATERS. March 15, 1936.