ARMS INQUIRY.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20543, 19 February 1935, Page 1

ARMS INQUIRY.

Britain Appoints Royal Commission. TERMS OF REFERENCE. British Official Wireless. (Received February* 19, 12.55 p.m.) RUGBY, February IS. Mr MacDonald announced in the House of Commons that Sir John Eldon Bankes, formerly* Lord Justice of Appeal, would be chairman of the Roy*al Commission on the Traffic in Arms. The other members would be Sir Thomas Allen, Dame Rachael Crowdy, Sir Philip Gibbs, Professor Cutteridge, Sir Kenneth Lee and Mr J. A. Spender. The terms of reference are: “To consider and report upon the practicability and desirability, both from the national and international point of view, of the adoption (1) by the United Kingdom alone and (2) by the United Kingdom in conjunction with other countries of the world prohibition of the private manufacture and trade in arms and munitions, and the institution of a State monopoly of such manufacture and trade; to consider and report whether there are any steps which can usefully be taken to remove or minimise the kinds of objections to which private manufacture is stated in Article VIII of the Covenant of the League of Nations to be open; to examine the present arrangements in force in the United Kingdom relative to the control of the export trade in arms and munitions, and to report whether these arrangements require revision and, if so, in what directions.” The Roy*al Commission will be appointed under the usual form of warrant, giving powers to call persons before them to give evidence, to call for information in writing, and to call for and examine documents.