ARMAMENTS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 18 February 1935, Page 5

ARMAMENTS

MANUFACTURE AND SALE POLICY OF BRITAIN (British Official Wireless) RUGBY, 15th February. Lord Stanhope outlined the British Government’s policy on governmental control of the manufacture and sale of armaments at Geneva yesterday, when the committee on the traffic in arms had adopted the American draft convention as a basis of discussion. Lord Stanhope said that the object of the British Government was to introduce adequate and 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 tiie trade in arms whereby that trade is confined to legitimate channels and only passes through responsible handsto ensure that the world should have timely information of any material increase in the armaments of any country, whether bv 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 fulfil these -objects was simple, and lie 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.