ARMAMENTS

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22767, 20 July 1939, Page 15

ARMAMENTS

TO THE EDITOB OT THE PRESS* Sir, —Mr D. Robertson exposes the weakness of the argument that peace can be secured by making one s country so much stronger, t/it he also should do some thinking to find out who are accessories to the armaments racket. The war in China could be stopped at once if America, would stop the supplies of war material to Japan. Britain and Germany could stop their supplies to China and to the southeastern States of Europe. Britain and France could have withheld supplies to Germany in the years of depression. It is all very “well for Labourites to inveigh against the plutocracy, but I would remind them that capital is inert without labour, that the workers themselves are to blame because they accept work without .any regard as to whether the product of their work is for sale for the benefit of society and can be bought by willing consumers. . . ~ „ ‘ As a one-time member of the New Zealand Labour Patty. 1 secured the unanimous support of my branch in sending a remit to conference designed to draw the workers of the world together to defeat those who engineer wars through the power to keep workers employed making unnecessary goods in order to earn the right to receive a share of the necessary goods which are being produced in abundance without their labour. No war could be fought if workers put as much energy into demanding the right to refuse work as they do to-day in demanding work and imagining that they are making themselves secure m awards for wages.—Yours, etc., W. B, BRAi. July 17, 1939.