Arms Bribery

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXVI, Issue 111, 23 April 1936, Page 9

Arms Bribery

FINDINGS IN U.S. Investigators Bring Down Sweeping Charges STRICTER SUPERVISION By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright WASHINGTON, April 21. After almost two years of investigation, the Senate Munitions Committee has submitted a majority report recommending the nationalisation of the munitions industry. A minority report recommends stricter Government supervision. All the members agreed to a six-point indictment of the American munitions manufacturers. The six points were these:— 1. The bribery of officials is almost without cxeeptiou the favourite sales method of munitions companies. 2. Peace efforts, especially moves towards the limiting of armaments, have been actively obstructed. 3. Munitions companies “scare nations into continuing frantic expenditures’’ by playing one country against another. 4. Companies have gained an undue influence in the War, Navy and Commerce Departments of {he Federal Government, going so far us to persuade officials to give them active support in peddling munitions in other countries. 5. Commercial interest sometimes takes place over “national policy” la munitions makers’ minds. 6. No effective control has been established over the manufacture of poison gases and high explosives. Although agreeing to the conclusions, the minority members held that “public welfare, from the standpoint of peace, defence and economy, can better be served by rigid and conclusive munitions control, than by nationalisation, except in a few isolated instances.” The majority report specifically called for “Government ownership of facilities adequate for the construction of all warships by the Navy Department, also all gun forgings, projectiles and armour-plate, and of facilities adequate for the production of powder, rifles, pistols and machiue-guns necessary for the War Department.’’