THE TRADE IN MUNITIONS
Stet,—Mr. Angus Watson draws attention to the need for the fullest safeguards " when the war is over " to ensure that " at no future date will this nation be a party to selling armaments to neutrals who may later use them against our own citizens." Later in his letter he mentions Sir Basil Zaharoff and says that his activities during the last war are still remembered. I would suggest that comparatively few people have any memory of those activities or we should hear much more of demands for assurances that the supervision of the armaments industry is now so complete that there is no loophole for the repetition of the leakages of arms and materials which would appear to have occurred in 1914-1918. • .
Robert Neumann wrote a biographical study of Zaharoff, and a translation was published by George Allen and Unwin, Ltd., and later was republished for Readers' Union, Ltd. This book makes almost incredible statements about the relations between the principal armament firms in Britain, France and Germany and Zaharoff. It cites a number of cases in which war-materials were actually delivered to the enemy during the course of the 1914-1918 war. The book constantly refers to documentary evidence, much of which would not appear to be available for confirmation, but the most convincing evidence for its veracity is the fact that it has never been withdrawn from publication or, to the best of my knowledge, been the subject of a successful or unsuccessful libel action.
The production and sale of armaments is, of course, now very largely under Government control, but can we be quite sure that the abuses detailed in Neumann's book are now rendered completely impossible? The publication of Ambassador Dodd's Diary and the form of the publicity given to it must have raised such a thought in the minds of many people. Surely it should not have been left to the good sense of Mr. Angus Watson to make the necessary enquiries about the statements he quotes from Ambassador Dodd's Diary and reveal his findings to the important but limited public
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