Armaments

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32314, 4 June 1970, Page 10

Armaments

Sir,—Mr John Mulholland (“The Press,” Tuesday): “Latin America has become an unexpected but welcome market for the arms industries of Britain and the rest of Europe, which elsewhere are coming up against increasingly stiff competition from the United States and the Soviet Union.” This statement blows up the time-worn excuse that the supply of arms is to maintain the “balance of power,” and we, poor simple-minded gullibles, go on believing the myth. Since when has equality of armed power stopped nations from making war? While members attend the United Nations General Assembly and deliberate, with tongue in cheek, on ways bringing peace to the world, nations are desperately competing for orders from Latin America or other cen-

tres of unrest. A study of forces supporting front-line troops will show that units of the “private industrial enterprise brigade" are in close attendance and intent on supplying the necessary arm to protect their interests.— Yours, etc., R. J. GLEN. June 3, 1970.