Patea & Waverley Press FRIDAY, MAY 29, 1925. DISARMING GERMANY

Patea Mail, Volume XLVIII, 29 May 1925, Page 2

Patea & Waverley Press FRIDAY, MAY 29, 1925. DISARMING GERMANY

Anyone vclio has any doubt whatever as to Germany’s desire to enter upon another vrar in order to regain what she lost when the Treaty of Versailles was signed still making tilings as difficult for of Brigadier-General J. H. Morgan, of the Allied 'Military Control Commission, whose unpleasant task it was to see that the disarmament clauses of the Versailles Treaty were duly carried out. The task was to have been accomplished within six mouths, according to the Treaty, but alter five years of .-irenuous work ty the Comr. is si on, the German authorities wore mil Imaking tilings as diffic .iR for it as possible. 'Jhat the task was an almost impossible one is shown by the story General Morgan tells. To dispatch a few hundred allied officers, unarmed, except for their revolvers (and even those we were not supposed to take), says the General, with a handful of soldierclerks, batmen and military policemen, into the heart of Germany, with instructions to blow up her fortresses, dynamite her powder factories dismantle her gas factories, demolish Krupp’s gunshops, shut down or transform her munition factories (there Avere 7000 of them), suppress her arsenals, close her depots, demobilise the old Army and control the ucav, down to the inspection of every nominal roll, strength return and

altestation paper, supervise the police, enforce the disbandment of illegal formations of the most ruffianly <i tonghs” yon ever saw—to dispatch a few hundred oflicers on such a mission would, right up to the day on which the German Army capitulated in the field, have seemed a widely incredible undertaking. That the Germans, treacherous to the last degree, and anxious to evade the clauses of the Treaty, were anxious to prevent the general disarmament decided upon by the Allies, was shown by their conduct towards the Commission again and again. “Some of our officers,” says General Morgan, “had narrow shaves from revolver shots. There were unpleasant experiences in the way of fusilades of stones from the men in one barracks, and a scalding baptism of Army rations, in the form of hot soup, in another. On one occasion, at Stettin, two Allied officers were very roughly

handled and throAvn down the steps of a police barracks by the very police Avhom it Avas their duty to inspect. In spite of the difficulties put in their Army, the Commission did good Avork in clraAving Germany’s teeth, particularly at Krupp’s huge arsenal. Mere gauges Avere destroyed by thousands, and jigs by tens of thousands. The costly shellpresses Avere scrapped- Avholesale, and in some cases Avhole “shops" Avere destroyed, Avith eA r erything in them. General Morgan goes on to say: “Krupp’s proof-butts for the testing of armour plate and guns avc razed to the ground. Ironically enough, avc used their OAvn plant to compass Krupp’s destruction, just as avc smelted doAvn gun tubes in their oavii furnaces; Krupp’s machines Avere dynamited hi Krupp’s armour-plate pits or smashed by their magnets—a steel ball of 10 tons Avas lifted by means of the magnet attached to a crane, into the air, the magnet Avas then de-eleetrified, and the ball fell on the doomed machinery beloAV, and great Avas the fall of it. All this sounds pretty thorough, and so it Avas. But there Avere limits, to what avc could do, because Krupp’s, Avith all the other arms and munitions factories folloAving suit, had anticipated us to a large extent by turning over, or pretending to turn OA r er, to the production of ordinary commercial articles; and although nearly all the machines thus eoiwerted to peaceful use had been used for war, we could not scrap the Avhole lot of them without destroying German industry. So there it is, most of it capable of re-conversion at very short notice." General Morgan also points out that in order to retain their presses for stamping cartridges, the crafty Huns had begun turning out kitchen utensils at this particular arsenal, sufficient to supply every kitchen in the Avorld for years to come, Avhilst their punching machines Avere demobilised from punching holes in cartridge cases to punching holes in trouser buttons ! At Bpandau, too, they tried to preserve their fuse-making machinery by feAmrisldy utilising it for the manufacture of bath taps. In aucav of these facts that General Morgan discloses, it seems more than ever a pity that the Allied forces did not march straight to Berlin and remain in occupation of German territory until every arsenal Avas razed to die ground, and Germany prevented from Avaging, Avar in the future.