Arms Profits The Government's conversations with the representatives of employers
and workers in the armaments industry con- tinue ; the next step is to be a meeting with officials of the Amalgamated Engineering Union next week. The problem is to secure a dilution of labour in the industry and a relaxation of the men's strict professional rules, in order to make possible a speed up and an increase in pro- duction ; and the Government is to be congratulated on leaving the problem, once made clear, to be settled by agreement between the employers and the men. But the technical problem is not the only one to be settled ; Mr. Fred Smith, secretary of the Amalgamated Engineering Union, in an admirable speech at Middlesbrough last week stated the conditions and guarantees which the men, though willing to make the sacrifices required, have a right to demand. Arms must not be made for export to dictatorship countries ; and the men must be guaranteed against the kind of treatment they received after similar sacrifices had been made during the last War. But most of all the Govern- ment must carry out its promise of two years ago to limit the profits of armament firms. Mr. Smith pointed out that Handley-Page had recently declared a dividend of 5o per cent. with a mo per cent. share bonus, and Vickers a year's profit of £2,000,000. Such figures serve as a pointed reminder of the Government's promise ; and if the men demand that it be kept, they will be speaking not for their union alone but for the overwhelming majority of the nation.
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