GERMANY ARMING IN SECRET.

Shannon News, 2 May 1924, Page 3

GERMANY ARMING IN SECRET.

• 10,000 HIDDEN GUNS. In British and French military circles great surprise has been caused by a statement which the Paris Matin has attributed to General Bingham, British representative on. the Allied Military Control Commission in Germany, to the effect that Germany has with the belief that Germany had bean effectually disarmed; but the discovery of 343 complete heavy field howitzers and 242 inner tubes for the same type of 'weapon at the Rockstroh works in Saxony in November 1921, followed by numerous other discoveries since that j date, showed that he was entirely mistaken. In two vital respects bad faith ha*> been shown by the German authorities. They have never communicated the exact number of guns that Germany possessed when the peace came into enec.t, so that it is impossible to know how many remain undestroyed. In well-informed quarters there are thought to be no fewer than 10,000 hidden. As there were 7000 munition works in Germany this is no very extravagant figure. 500,000 MEN. Secondly, the German Government has never communicated to the Allies the Mannschaftsuntersuchungen,listen, or recruiting returns of the new German Army. Hence, the Control Commission has not been able to ascertain the inspection of units whether more men than are allowed by the peace terms are being trained. But the Allied officers—or such of them as ke.ep their eyes open—believe that no fewer than 500,000 men are undergoing a. short service training year by year. None of the German military secrets has been disclosed to the Allies, though by the treaty all of them had to be revealed; and there is complete ignorance on the Allies’ part of what is going on in the German laboratories, where scientists are engaged in research into new arms and new kinds of poison gases. FORCING DOWN PLANES.

To take one remarkable example; it is known or suspected that the German physicists have found some means of putting out of action aeroplanes while in flight by some kind of ray directed from the ground. What this means is has not been disclosed, and every effort has been taken by the German authorities to prevent the Allied officers from investigating cases where aeroplanes- have been forced suddenly to descend.