TRADE IN ARMS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 68, 16 February 1935, Page 7

TRADE IN ARMS

POLICY OF BRITAIN. FOR WORLD CONTROL. REGULATION AND PUBLICITY. (United Press Association.-—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) (British Official Wireless.) Received February 16, 12.25 p.m. RUGBY, Feb. 15. Lord Stanhope outlined the British Government’s policy on governmental control of the manufacture and sale of armaments, at Geneva when the Committee on Traffic in Arms had adopted the American draft convention as the basis for discussion. Lord Stanhope said the object of the British Government was to introduce adequate practical measures of regulation and publicity internationally agreed upon in regard to the manufacture of arms; to devise a similar system of regulation and publicity in regard to trade in arms whereby that trade woukj be confined to legitimate channels and only pass through responsible hands; to ensure that the world would have timely information on any material increase of the armaments of any country, whether by import or manufacture; to provide machinery for the immediate imposition of an effective embargo on the export and import of arms, if and when such occasion should appear to be advisable. * Lord Stanhope maintained that the supervision required to fulfill these objects was simple. He recalled that the United Kingdom had long exercised a stringent system of licensing for the export of arms which, if generally applied, would remove the greater part of the evils associated with the trade. DISCUSSIONS AT GENEVA. GENEVA, Feb. 14. Discussions on disarmament were resumed after the recess when the Committee on Trade Manufacture of Arms, as a basis of discussion, adopted an American draft convention giving Governments full control of the private manufacture and trade in arms in their own countries.