HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1934-05-25, Page 6;i
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('condensed freini Fortune in ,' a,der's Digea.),.
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nR g to the 'best aeeounta'n'ey
its Wit, about $2.5,000 to kill
i x during the World 'War, One-
• Ot».-Oig Business Men never de-
ltileed this extradagance. For ev-
y ;tilne .a burat_ehell fragment found
sway intiy'the brain, the heart, or
intestines : of a nian in the front
e, a •g'r`eat part of the $25,000' found'
""way into the pockets of these men,
ie, armament Makers. '•-
The problem of 'European armamL
ents is eousiplex; if we are to get any_
where With it we must park our emo-
tions , outside. It is else secretive.
• af-i ''known about it is here get
down, not as .argument or inveetive,
but ...as ' elementary data, an opening
gun in what 'may become a, greater
campaign- on this subject.
First of all, there- is nothing that
could be called an '`Armlanient Ring,"
no, group of individuals that sits down
in a siound'proof broom and plots. new
holocausts. But without a shadow
of doubt ,there is at the moment in
CENT -A -MILE EXCURSIONS
To WesternrCani»da
and the. Pacific Coast
FROM ALL POINTS 'IN THE EAST
Going Dates—JUNE 10-30 inclusive
Tickets valid for return • to reach original starting
point within 45 days from date of sale, inclusive.
Children five years of age and under twelve, half of the adult fare.
Children under five years of age, free.
Baggage checked. Berths in TOURIST SL.FEPING CARS obtainable
on payment of small privilege charge, plus berth fare and tax.
STOP -OVERS PERMITTED
Convenient Train Service -Optional Routings
See nearest agent for Specific Fares—Berth Reservations -,-Tickets.
CANADIAN NATIONAL.
FWerolPe 'a huge and :ersitale force -
that lies bPhind the arming of maaK
tions: ther0 ars ries, r ►!site's, 'area-
aznent wgrks, holding, companies and
banks, entangled in• an :international
em`braee; Yet wordaine-ixae'italb1y firer
the destru.ion of such little interna-
tionalism " the worlds has achieved
.se, far. It is tithe we had!' a dramatic
,personae of arms, and the men. i
Best .known armament name in all
the world is perhaps the naane of
Krupp.. 'Before the war Krupp sup-
pplied. •0»e eouhtiries with arms, and
(during that War it stooc1 all but sin-
gle.handed against the world. • I
'W'hat of (Krupp now? In theory,
Krupp sinilelts only peaceful ore, mak-
ing locomotives, bridge girders and:
rails. Actually, Krupp is rearniiing
Germany. Forbidden by the Treaty of
Versailles to ini,p,ft. Ar;Lraments, Ger
many reoeives•genero•us supplies, from
Sweden (where Krupp controls the
armament firm of Bofors) and Hol-
land; forbidden to export armaments,
she ships -to South America the Far
p .
East, or to any European nation that,
will violate its own Treaty by order-
ing .fro ;,her. Yet for all the might
of the --Krupp works we must look
elsewhere to -day to find the rea1,heart
of the aisnuameii•t 'business.
To the U. S.,, perhaps? After • all
we 'have our du Pbnts,•,who "own"
the state of Delaware., *e• epee , had
our William B. !Shearer, whose boast
was that he wrecked' the Naval Coli-'
ference at. Geneva in 1927. We have
our 11/idlwale CU,, which prospered,
mightilygie wring the War and has.
continniee the :.manufacture of guns
and gun forgings, armor plate and
projectiles"•our Colt's Patent, F"ir•e_;,
arms Mfg. • Co. .which supplies .ma-
chine guns as well as squirrel rifles,
which declared an extra dividend,. in
1933; our Reininigton Arms Co. (con-
trolled by du Pont) whose output of
firearms and amiiiunition together is
one-third of U. S. production. And
we have our Bethlehem Steel Co.
blalei ,. ; Pih'arlee(iNf . r~ll( h
idismayed h$ cadets ..of 'West iFarnt
ilen h7tean '9l2'7' by: saying+." 'o: daYthe�Bslr
53�e iaoanpanY leas deKinit,ly
a!ba'ndoned:an ..,thought of ever .aga'in
en ' g i, ilii them'anlifaeture.rof or e
ante, expepy ,:in times of great nation-
al emergency.", -Such turns are a'p-
parently with us novr-e have,. in fact,
been continually with us since' .
Schwab 'Unloosed • this shaft of ora-
tory: • In . the official listing of•Bethle-
hens .products you will •fiend• armor
plate , tix+o'jectiles,, gun and shell forg-
ings, '.'battjeships, ruisexs, sulbmiar_
Lines and airplane carriers. .The site
at •Bethlehein 'Where cannon and arm.
or plate' are made is guarded, and it
mlay _be that,. Mr. Schwab has never
been. able to evade the vigilance of
his, watchmen. , . '
'Our own' country is not, then, quite
so ivirginally' innocent in this business
as we might like to suppose. But
despite the size of our -armament bill
and our munitions exports, to :South
and Central Am erica and the
Far
East, we are essentially small fry in
this game.
;Much larger fry is England, where
the Merin of Vickers=Arnie trongs, one
of the greatest exporters' of war ma-
! terials in the world;- is the brightest
star in the armament firmament. The
Viickers research staffs', work con-,
stantly to bring into i e,ss prodtiiction
such (bolsters to international comfort
as the Vickers= Carders -Lloyd Light
# taphibious , Tank, or the Vickers
''Vilde'beest iBombing.•M'achine.
• The sun never sets upon Vickers.
It has its factories in. Rumania, .and
allies itself with the rpzechos•lovakian
armament firm( of Skoda. There are
Viekeds factories- or subsidiary 'coin-
,
panes in Italy, Japan, 'Spain, Canada,
Ireland,Holland and New Zealand.
The affairs of Vickers are very
profitable; and En•glan•d's aristocracy
takes pleasure in clipping its .cou-
pons., Amsong the more proinineiit
shareholders of Vickers or allied con-
cerns in 1932 were: Rt. !Hon. Neville
Chamberlain, Chancellor of the EX -
chequer; Sir Austen chamberlain,
winner of the Nobel Peace ' Prite in
1925; and; .Sir' John: Simon, ,Secretary
of .State' for Foreign Affairs (but
who sold out bas shares last year).
In 1914 the list was even more im-
posing. It included that lofty -phil-
osopher Lord Balfour, Lord Kinnaird
(President of the Y. M. C. A.), three
bishops, and Dean Inge, of St. Paul's.
It was in that same year that' So-
cialist Philip Snowden spoke in Par_
liament: "It would be icy:ppossible to
th-ow a stone on the benches' op-
posite without hitting a Member who
is a shareholder in one or other of
these_ _firms." '
ound �an�ing
P:IZOTEC'I"S
• the Community
The Bank of Montreal works constructively
and conservatively for the protection of its
depositors and the community as a whole.
Because the Bank has, for more than a cen-
tury, endeavoured to do this, it has come to
»be regarded throughout the length and
breadth of the Dominion as a sound, safe
and friendly institution.
Make the nearest branch your banking head-
quarters =— a place to 'which 'you can go
regularly to transact your banking affairs, to
obtain information, and to discuss with the
Manager your plans and problems.
MODERN, 'E•IFICIENT BANKING SERVICE
, . , th'e Outcome of 116 Years' Successful Operation •
BANK OF M€NTRAL.
Established 1'817
TOTAL ASSETS IN EXCESS OP $750,000,000
Clinton Branch: H. R. SHARP, Manager
Hensall Branch: W. B. A. CROSS, Manager
Brucefield (Sub -Agency): Open Tuesday and Friday
You ,will gather that EngIand.,
'peace -loving England, has .been quite
" some time at the task of building' up
this iorganizartion. ,'She !has, ;And
much of its recent growth can be
credited to Mr. Basileios Zacharias,
who canoe to England as a poor
Greek. He is known to -day as Sir
Basil Zaharoff. He was an intimate
of Lloyd George during the War; a
few relatively mild revelations of the
degree to which he influenced Great"
Britain's armament, military and for-
eign policies during and after' the
War were enough, in 1Q2?• to send
Lloyd George, who, did "'here than
any other man to win' the War, out
of office forever_ This strange char-
acter, the greatest armament sales-
man the world has ever known, began
»by• making Is'ery -good profits out of
the perpetual dog fights in the Balk_
ans and the Near East, towhich he
was usually purveyor and of which
he was frequently instigator. The
Boer War added' to his laurels; Beers
shot Englishmen with Vickers guns.
But, naturally, it was the World War
that gratified Sir Basil most. By the
end of the War Sir Basil had a per-
sonal fortune estimated as high as a
billion dollars And in 1917, when
there 'seened 'a possibility of peao'e
through the intervention of the U. S.,
Lord Bertie, 'British Ambassador to
France, naively recorded in his diary:
i "Zaharoff is all for continuing the
War jusqu'au bout"
l'So much for Krupp and Vickers•
1 Armstrongs, and the now senile Sir
Basil. All this is a _mere curtain
1 raiser. The Big' Show is France.
Trance stands at the very top. She
'has to -day an army which all but
r.
equals in nuni(ber and far surpasses'
in equipment Germany's vast militar-
istic machine of 1914. Yet the French
threat to the peace of the world does
not lie in this army'. It lies- in the
fact that in , France the' armament
.makers are not humble solicitors of
government orders. Their influence
is so infiltrated into the industrial,
social and political affairs of the na-
ton that they have power in zonate
ways beyond the state: :a power so
mighty that they' are all but able,
for their own indiVridualistic reasons,
to sweep the state along a course of
action against its own -will. They
these wholesome breads
ith ROYAL YEAST CAKES
"PULL leavening power, success
every time ... are' assured
whenever you bake with Royal
YeastCakes. Individually wrapped -
in air -tight waxed paper they al-
ways reach you h perfect condi-
tion. And 'they stay absolutely
fresh for months. No wonder
Royal Yeast Cakes have been the
standard of quality for over 50
years. Today-they.are preferred
in 7 out of every $ Canadian
homes where dry yeast is used.
rate: The Royal Veers'* Bake Book to' rie'ewhen you
baketa frame. re tells atl *6osrc'rhn' skiff 'of bread mak-
ing: 23 tested rearrest Leaf breads, eoaeeeukea, rolls,
Mina! Address Standard Brenda Ltd,,, tittratr Ave, &
Liberty St., Taranto, trnt•. Ask, toe. fer leaflet, "The
Royal Read CO sewnetatlth.' •
• BOV MAD1e11 .CA,NAfA GOO
aa•
are' all hunt anoapnecua, these raft.
"l'hey aro di'splegsed ;by P1'biinity and
are well alble •enforce their dha
pleasure. That we mustnow duple. e,•
ane„of theni and, present. 'X. Schnee .
'Charles Prosper Eugene 'S:chneidert
isa *amt `orf h a. ' offices -,the exeeu-'.
Wire, heed of hundreds of armament
firing throughout Europe:, fie .is
President -of the ehneider-Creusiot
company, ;armament manufacturers
with :nines and foundries .scattered
throughout France. He is President
of . the .Union Europeeq ne, which con-
trols 23o , armament enterprises out.,
side France. The greatest of these
concerns is that glittering jewel . in
the crown of Cieclloslova tiha known'
as Skoda.
Upon the board of Skoda sits M:
Schneider, Also on the aboard are
two Czecho-Germans who, it is: in:
teresting to note, were very heavy
financial contributors to Hitler's po-
litieal .success.-- 'Political »France "and
political Grirmany may »be at swords'
points, and, France may quiver at her
lack' of "security,” :but the lion and
the lamb never ;lie down with rniore
good fellowship than these French
and German »gentlenuen when they
come together to increase Europe's
consumption -of armaments.
sIf you have a naivete about the
War, shed it now; the War in no
way interrupted the cordiality of the
armament makers. One major epi-
sode in particular revealed' their un-
shakable solidarity.
Before 1914 the great iron mines
and smelters in the Briey basin pro-
vided 70 per cent. of the ore used by
.,France. The erman advance wrest-
ed them from the political control of.
France -and quitenaturally the Ger-
man artillery chiefs saw, to it that
the mines, were so protected from
•shill fire that they could be taken
over intact. Thenceforth the ¢nines
of the 'Briey basin, in association with
other mines in Lorraine, supplied
Germany with some three-quarters of
the ore she consumed during the
War. ,
In !1916 'Briery ' canine once• again
within range of the French. --The
Briey mines were turning out ton's
of raw materials per day,which were
being; turned into weapons of death
against .French • troops, and the naive
civilian would •therefore suppose that
the French array would turn loose
its bombing planes and blast out of
existence a principal source of enemy
supply. But neither bombs nor shells
burst at Briey during the entire
oourse of the War. Here- the proof
of the international operations of the
armament ,rirakers is open to no ques-
tion at all. In the record is the
testimony of Deputy Pierre Flandin
(later Finance Minister under Tar-
dieu) to the effect t'hat'he, an artil-
lery •officer daring the War, knew of
his own knowledge that the artillery.
of the French •Second' Arany had been
expressly forbidden to ibOmbard Briey
when a ten -mile penetration of the
sector would have come close to
spelling German ruin. And, the state-
ment Of his colleague, Deputy Bartle,
followed: "In order to safeguard
private business interests', our .mili-
tary chiefs Were' ordered not to bom-
bard the establishments of the Briey
(basin.• . . A general who wished
to bomlbard them was reprimanded."
There is `a quality of delirium a-
bout facts like these. Yet the facts
are facts.
The episode of Briey brings us now
bo the pinnacle of the • armament
structure.. Who held the impulsive
line •offucers in check?
We must look higher than Schneid-
er-Creusot for the final answer. For
far overtopping Schneider-Creusot
and its subsidiaries stands the great
organization of iron and steel manu-
facturers, the Comite ides Forges de
France.
The Comite des 'Forges is not, as
it has »been called, the "French Steel
Trust." It does not produce or sell.
Its activities are More subtle: pol-
itics and propaganda are . its princi-
pal concerns. Its mecnlbership con-
,sists of 250 companies, of which over
150 are armament concerns. deml-
'ber No, 1 is iSohneider-Creusot. The
Comite controls the press; it has the
ear of the 'Foreign Office. • Former
Presidents of France have been di-
rectors of its snibsidiaries. And the
President of the Comite (we must
now displease another lover of an-
onymity) is the cloud -wreathed» figure
of Francois de Wendel.
The de Wendell, have ;been Europe's
armorers sihlce before the Frenich
Revolution. Yet they have not al-
ways been French nor, even, always
the de Wendels. They were once von
Wendels, 'and the family was happy
to serve either Paris or Berlin —+ or
better, both. In 1914 the ranking
mermlber of the fancily"was 'Humbert
von Wendel, a member of the Ger-
man Reichstag. After the Treaty of
Versailles. Vie became Tumlbert de
Wendel. His brother is the Francois
of the Comite. The famrily's enorm-
ouS wealth is in mines, and since
boundary 'lines now throw most of
their estates into France, the family
consists preponderantly of de Wen-
•dels, 'but with a soffieient number of
von Wendels to manage its German
affairs. Tfie long experience,, of this.
familymade Briey almost , a •ruiner•
episode. When a military advance
turned a `Trench" possession into a
'German',? one. the de 'Wendellneed.
have felt no 'great concern. Regard-
less of the national tags _attached to
these ,nines, they remained in the
placid control of ome or the other
branph of the familA
The Francois de '*Wendel of the
present day is a ,Poch Bah; his can-
n•ections and directorships would fill
pages. He is among other things a
director not only of the French but
of the German de Wendel companies.`
But that eoincidtence does not set
forth his true qualities, of being a
Pooh -Bah. »Is (Francois de Wendel,
'President of the Comite des Forges,
faced with a financial problenil? Then
let him consult Francois de Wendel,
Regent of the '1'3anque de, France. Is'
he in need of political **verb? Fran.
Bois de Wendel, I11l nriber of the Oham-
berr. 'Od,'',I7ei"ptnties, fn'i'tirrilate 'of Andre
Tardieu, onejtinve controller of sixty
deputies, is the naan for him to see.
Does 'CMS axises of news need to be
"interpreted?" a cannot~. do better
tt, "ti to tomtit that 1i'a erfi l journ-
ali; t,r 7 rancola tle Wets:14 (MOW'
"thlivority iiitei'est Iournall des
1 atAt i ..t1 0 � a ro9
n 193 ° 990
iehrs(taaPea, (o Vie+'re ... k'
-41,040; :fes Terms, anal. WA: Tovu
i e Mira, l 1w de '1'f471"iai .anu Vie•;
igen .; ,Wa rr ►e .na atkt'a ►g ''
ganlaa son upta ti r3aie ' bad ►van'aa'4r
press, of �' nee very iarga4;s d pen is.
•Conspirator zs not ani unfmir word.,
to apply 'to'.• the arnianfent m s'.era,. of
mane -,yes; it antast.n,�ot Ibe elo-
�dranilat tally. l'robaQ l* klused u me n e
iSehneider ands Francois de " Wendel'
are lovable old gentlenne' vilho' weep
at a Chopin' ballade:- Yi1. they are
conspirator beeause '' they have 2io
loyalties; because. *heirs is, the sword.
that 'knows no brother, "The • rise of
Hitler to bower provides a neat ex-
ample.
(Phe iCeinite'des Forges and Sshnei-
der-IOreusot' were nob at all unwill-
ing to see 'Hitler gain ascendancy in
'Germany. Documentary proof of
this' is lacking •,bu* the inferential
-proofis,•inescalpable: In 1938 Hitler
sued a Geriinien' journalist for having
made the statement.. that Skoda, ,(and
through iSkoda, Schneider-Creusot)
had contributed to his • camtpaigr eSc-
penses. When, however,. he was
challenged to make a direct denial
that this was so, ]he stormed from
the witness stand, cursed the -oppos-
ing lawyer for a Jew, and never
specifically , answered • the question.
Nowhere has a denial of the accusa-
tion elver been made.
uAs the record stands, the leading
munition 'ana'kers, of France support-
ed the one mran most capable of stir=
ring up a new outbreak of• interna-
tional anarchy in Europe. And by
a curious• coincidence (here is where
the sword• presents its other gleam-
ing 'edge) the de Wendel -controlled
newspapers in Paris • iminilediately
broke out in a fever of denunciation
against the Hitler rerginme °and called'
for fresh guaranties of security a-
gainst the menace of rearming Ger-
many,!
In that one example the whole
philosophy of most arrnanient mak-
ers `reveals itself. Keep ..Europe in a
constant state sof .nerves. Publish
pexrio:dical. War scares.. Impress gov-
ernmental1 officials with the vital••ne
cessity of imlaintaiiring armaments a-
gainst the "aggressions" of, neighbor
states. For the armament industry
operates with one curious advantage
over any other business in the world:
the greater the competition the great-
er- the annount of business' for all
competitors. If a Schneider=Creusot.
salesman sells 100,000 rifles to
Yugoslavia he has already eased the
path of the Vickers -Armstrongs sales-
man in selling 200,000 rifles to Italy.
Have govserninents ever taken any
steps to conrfiscate the 'business of
•arm meat makers? Very few. Al-
though the conviction has grown a-
mong •Europe's more enlightened
statesmen that something had to be
done about the de Wendels, the
Schneiders, and •their breed, govern-
ments were puzzled to know what it
could :he, A nation that suppresses
or confiscates its private arinarnen;t,
industry' is faced:.with these'alterna-
tives: (a) it niiust drisarmu (b) must
become exelusively an importer of
arms; (c) it must make anms manu-
facturing a ,function of the state,
which means, in. effect, that .the state
must become a vast arsenal — since,
having no, opportunity to keep plants
large and active by supplying anex-
,port trade, it must manufacture in
quantities sufficiently large so -that it
could step, overnight, from a peace-
time to a war -time production sche-
dule. Moreover, how can the arm-
ament-business-be
rmyamen" business -be outlawed when it
is 'a part of the Mast -essential indus-
tries of industrialised nations?
And in recent months that fight.
has loomed most noticeably in France
where resentment against„ the de
Wendels and the Schneiders•has been
growing more and more hitter. Many
groups are beginning to look upon
the armorers in the light of national
enemies,
And these Schneiders and de Weii-
cle•Is miss one point: the trenches and
shell holes of war time are only the
primary, lesions cif'; an international
social disease. When the disease at
'r o•. cl AMM
01.
into b9iM!
+. li (,1 = are Wes, ie4.11- .
a►,, Oa as ae £ •,.a beay'�y lir ,
..�ese Wra.,rlfa. oil..ifsl►
- water; ' ." : er.' v low. or- •
ro , 1 ?i "f4 a11 .
Yo oille lithe WIC teed 1t 1Av '(rRa►. titer •
toblq. ., Ilom; Astk for tlignwt by aaoiM. > 919
' art iWA 264.Iah .d • 8111
at ead,
last -inevitably atbaelos the 1blood'aadi
bones. of ''.alatign ... that . have ..to
war, even de^'W'endels.a?nd,Se'hneflders
can sniffer. -suffer: with their'NOW
ing banks and collapsing 'in'dustrial
empires.
BAC ACN0
quickly disappears ahem; the ,
Liver end, Kide¢ys
ere aroused by •
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