ATLANTIC CHARTER

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 64, Issue 4522, 12 January 1942, Page 6

ATLANTIC CHARTER

IMPORTANT CLAUSES I | “ One of the most important clauses I of the Atlantic Charter is that which 1 provides for the disarmament of agI gressor nations after their defeat. ! “It is essential, however, that the ( meaning of the term ‘ disarmament ’ should be sharply defined, even at this i stage. It must be made plain that | the short-sighted application of the I term after the last war will not be I repeated. I “In the vocabulary of the statesI men of Versailles, ‘ disarmament ’ meant simply the surrender of the j bulk of the arms which the defeated enemy possessed; the dismantling of | fortifications; and an undertaking not to manufacture certain types of arms beyond a certain quantity. I “No provisions whatever woy made to prevent Germany from ’JtI building her vast arms industries un- | der the guise of production for peace requirements after Versailles. | “ The major parts of the plants of the vast Krupp works and other arms factories remained. Germany was allowed to retain and develop a unique machine tool industry, which enabled her to equip scores of arms factories in record time. “ As is well known, factory buildings, power plants, and other capital factors can be used for manifold requirements. Only machine tools must be specialised for a particular line of production. A country which can produce machine tools at a rapid pace can build arms works in a very brief space of time.”—Financial News.