The Daily News. TUESDAY, APRIL 7, 1914. "ARMS AND THE MAN."

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 265, 7 April 1914, Page 4

The Daily News. TUESDAY, APRIL 7, 1914. "ARMS AND THE MAN."

"Anna virumquc cauo." When the Roman poet commenced his epic of war with tlie statement that lie proposed to sing of "iinns and the man," he gave prominence, perhaps unconsciously, to the idea that arms arc more important than men or a leader of men in directing the issues of battle. It is a recognition of the same fact that lies behind the modern craze for superior armaments and engines of war. No one doubts that it was mainly the possession of superior rifles by the Prussians that j led to the defeat of France in the war of 1870-71, and it is also generally admitted that the calibre of tfie artillery had much to do with determining the result of various battles in the Balkans quite, recently. So, also, there is a firm conviction that in the great war of the near future the victory will rest with the sids that has the most deadly weapons ami the strongest warships. But another aspect of the relation between men and arms has lately come to the front and has attracted much attention. The Roman poet probably never dreamt that the day would come when the p*ssession of arms would become a direct incentive to war—nay, that men wouM be incited to go to battle, not for glory or gain, but for the aggrandisement of the makers of weapons and munitions of war. "If you wish to have peace, prepare for war." This axiom is peauliarly appropriate to a wealthy nation whose neighbors aio easting covetous eyes on her riches, and to that extent it is sound philosophy. But experience i 3 teaching European nations in this twentieth century that preparations f<v. war can lie provocative as well as preventive, and instead of producing a/sense of safety the condition of armed neutrality conduces to a feeling of insecurity and of daily apprehension of attack. There is an even more alarming development of the armament question whijli constitutes a profound national and international danger, viz., the tremendous influence exerted in the world of politics by the great firms engaged in the business of building warships and manufacturing guns and ammunition. Sir John I'mnner, president of the National Liberal Federation in England, drew attention to this aspect of the matter in a recent letter to English newspapers. He pointed out that Messrs Krupp, the great Gorman makers, have recently been in trouble because they bribed German officials to obtain help in their trade, and also for having tried to iuducu a. Frenchman to urge the French (iovernmont to increase their armaments to enalile France to oppose Germany. There was some excitement over a proposal that would have given the Krunns control of a # Russian armament firm. A great English firm manufacturing armaments has a controlling interest in a second Russian firm of armament makers. Another English firm,* the most powerful of them all, has a branch factory at Naples. The great French armament makers have also a manufacturing interest in Russia, and it is understood that they are preparing to help with money the Russian firm first mentioned. Mr. .fohn Brnnner's conclusion is that "all this great organisation is actively interested in persuading the great Powers, as well as the smaller ones, to arm against each other, and all the people of these countries believe themselves to be patriots when they accept these invitations, and they profess their readiness to make sacrifice after sacrifice in order to prepare against war." The plain fact is that these armament firms know nothing' of patriotism, but are prepared to provide death-dealing weapons and munitions to any country that can pay for them. Many of Britain's "little wars'' have been made prolonged and sanguinary simply because British manufacturers supplied their country's enemies with anus and ammunition. Surely stcos should he taken to amend or end this frightful state of things. It i; suggested that the Hague Conference should endeavor to have a rule accepted whereby the foreign trade of armament manufacturers should be controlled. As the Pall .Mall Gazette has remarked, "This cold-blooded application of science and brains and capital to the production of the deadliest kind of war material, for every nation indiscriminately, simply eliminates (be moral element altogether from the business of natioiwl defence." An American writer litis slated the situation very succinctly by describing the armament firms' as "the European Ann.-, Trust. Limited," and has added the very pertineiif comment:- "To manufacture ships, cannon, and all flic instruments for legalized manslaughter, M part nf a nation's necessary armaments, is one thing: to turn them out as a profitable business of denationalized finance, for sale to the first or highest bidder, is a nefarious and criminal traffic." When the eyes of the people are opened to tlie cold-blooded nature of this traffic, there may he hope for change for the

better. Meantime, the work of dreadful preparation goes on, and the masses of tlie peoples, whose sons are destined t« fco "food for powder," are being taxed almost beyond endurance to pity the coat of the warships and armaments which are necessary—or apparently are necessary—for the defence of each country against imagined enemies.