“Blocking Disarmament”

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 17, 14 October 1933, Page 9

“Blocking Disarmament”

Sir, —With reference to the lecture on “Blocking of Disarmament,” given by the Youth Peace Crusade, and reported in your newspaper on Tuesday, October 10 I wish to add that the Shearer scandal in the United States in 1929 provides an even more striking example of the ,world-wide ramifications of the armament industry. Many of your readers will remember that Shearer had been paid 51,000 dollars by the three biggest shipbuilding firms of the United States for his work in spreading seeds of distrust in the minds of the delegates to the 1927 Naval Disarmament Conference, and, by these and other means, assuring its failure. I3e issued a writ for a further 255,000 dollars as a commission on the rush orders for battleships, which followed the failure of this conference. It came as a shock to the American public to learn that this man, who had broadcast himself on public platforms and through the Press, as an ardent patriot was, in reality, the paid hireling of the armament industry. It is very pleasing to .heap that the aim of this'new organisation is to breakdown, by educative methods, the general idea that war is inevitable, and I feel that in advocating the abolition of the private manufacture of armaments, they have hit the nail on the head.. I shall be pleased if you will put me in touch with the secretary of the new organisation.—l am, T jj O jj A g Karori, October 12.