The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast, Times WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 27, 1932. GERMAN ARMAMENTS.

Hokitika Guardian, 27 January 1932, Page 4

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast, Times WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 27, 1932. GERMAN ARMAMENTS.

A sensational statement was made last week by a. French General, who is a member of the Armaments Commission of the French Senate, (that Germany is evading the terms of me Treaty of Versailles by preparing a ■powerful army. A member of thei Senate also maintains that Germany’s actual annual expenditure for military purposes is far more than is shown in the published returns. It is extremely unfortunate that these statements should hav c been made almost on the eve of the Disarmament Conference, for, whether (true or not, tnoy are certain to strengthen France’s determination to make no further concessions to Germany and to insist at any cost on guarantees for her own security. But, quite apart from tilts, there is good reason to believe that the allegations of General Bourgeois and Senator Eccatcl are in the main true. For it is notorious that, ever since 1919, the Germans have carefully evaded the disarmaments clauses of the Treaty by every means in tiieir power. Remarkable evidence to this effect is contained in statements made in the “Times” some three years ago by Brigadier-General Morgan, who acted on the Control Commission at Berlin and in the Rhineland from 1919 to 1927. As General Morgan happens also to be one of our foremost juristic experts, his opinions on these matters are of supreme interest and importance. In 1928 General Morgan, in reply to a reference by Mr Lloyd George to Germany’s “tiny army,” pointed out that between 1922 and 1926 Germany had trained over 809,000 fresh troops, without reckoning the older reservists, and that the Government evidently meant to follow out literally von Steeekt’s proposal to organise the whole nation for war. as to expenditure, General Morgan showed that Germany’s. annual outlay on stores, munitions and military armament was twice that of Britain, though Germany is forbidden by the Treaty to possess heavy artillery; and by 1928 Germany was spending every year on field training exactly ten times the amount allocated by Britain for that purpose. But this is by no means the whole story. For General Morgan explained at length that the German “civil” estimates contained hidden votes which ought to be included in the military estimates. Moreover, there has never been any certainty that Germany surrendered all the war material required by the Treaty. Large ammunition stores and great stocks of field artillery and machine guns hove been discovered from time to time, and the obstinate refusal of the German authorities to produce either their Armament Production records or their Recruiting Returns since 1922 have practically prevented the Allies from getting at the vital facts of the situation. Moreover, General Morgan considers that industrially and economically Germany has organised her resources for immediate use in case of war “with truly admirable foresight and ability.” He ■ does not charge the Germans with plotting another war just now, hut be holds that they are “getting ready for one,” and lie thinks that the Allies cannot afford to ignore such manifestations of the “will of war” as are at tlie present agitating France.