" For Military Purposes " A five-line paragraph in Tuesday's
Times is potentially as important as anything in the paper. It records that Mr. Harold Ickes, the Secretary of the Interior in the United States, has forbidden the export of helium to Germany " as he is not persuaded that it will not be used for military purposes." Helium is a non-inflammable gas, of which the United States has almost a monopoly, and Germany's demand for it arose out of the destruction of the airship Hindenburg' (then filled with hydrogen) last year. Mr. Ickes' refusal is not based on any very consistent logic, for a dozen com- modities which America exports freely are used extensively for military purposes, but the reminder, even on an almost insignificant scale, of the dependence of a militarist (or any other State) on external supplies that can be withdrawn at will is by no means inopportune. That general question is discussed more fully in a leading article on a later page. * * * *
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