GERMANY ARMING.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 15467, 11 March 1921, Page 4

GERMANY ARMING.

NEW GUNS FOR FIRING ON TRENCHES AND AIRCRAFT. LONDON. Dec. 28.—During a debate in the French Chamber, M. Lefevre referred to the efforts of Germany to reconstitute her armaments while concealing them from the Inter-A Hied Military Control, lie calculated that there were still several tens of thousands of machine guns in Germany, several millions oF" rifles and a large number of field guns, and he also stated that the Zeiss works were still manufacturing trench periscopes. Germany was concealing 1100 gun breeches in secret, depots. Immediately after the armistice, a new 7-milimetre shell was found. which must have meant new guns, and these no one had as yet succeeded in discovering. Of the 140,000 machine-guns that had been destroyed, not a single model had been discovered of the two latest machine gun.-:, of which one, a two-barrelled weapon, was capable of firing 1500 shots a minute against aircraft, and the other intended for, firing on trenches from aircraft. The ex-Minister besought tho Government to come to an understanding with, the Allies for the establishment of permanent control over Germany's armaments and to revise tho Treaty of Versailles on this point. General de Castelnan expressed the view that, if Franco had to act, she must act as soon as possible. Tie asked : Have wo told our British allies that the Germans are constructing guns and aircraft which menace even- Britain herself? Have you shown the Allies the need for obtaining tlie integral execution of the Treaty, of Versailles?