Mr. G. D. H. Cole says

Radio Record, Volume VII, Issue 46, 24 May 1935, Page 18

Mr. G. D. H. Cole says

I feel tempted to dwell on the horrors of war. The causes lie to-day above all else in the Imperialist rivalry which exists between countries, Each national and economic group is glaring at each other group across their frontiers, The dangers of great wars come, Iam sure, from the rivalries between great Imperial powers. There is no way short of a Socialist system of getting rid of these rivalries. Most people will agree nowadays that wars donot pay. The last war saddled us with an enormous burden of debt and killed a great number of our best people. There were some people whom it did pay-and very handsomely indeed. How ean you expect unmixed sorrow in the arsenals and. the shipyards when the Government suggests increasing the size of the navy and army? Armament shareholders are very like other shareholders-they are pleased when the dividend goes up.. Armament shares go up because some nations are more or less frightened of the possibility of another war, With most goods the more you have to sell the cheaper you have to sell them. But the more arms you sell to one country, the more you sell to another. The nore armaments there are in the world the more still there are likely to be to-morrow. Does anyone doubt that the armament firms do go a long way beyond

other people in using bribery and intrigue in order to induce govern: ments to buy their stuff? The more and deadlier arms one country has heen induced to buy, the more and deadlier arms another country feels itself obliged to buy, too. It is just downright nonsense to speak of armg as a means to security. I know that for some time to come armaments will go on being made in this country as well as others. Surely it is quite fantastically wrong that any nation should allow its armaments firms to sell their goods to foreign countries which may afterwards use them for shooting down or bombing or gassing its own nationals, I’m quite sure that no body of company directors is morally strong enough to stand up to the temptations which the making of arms for private profit is bound to involve. Is it quite an accident that German leaders of the "heavy" industries have backed the Nazis from the start? We ought to nationalise our armaments industry. But I'll ndmit that that is not as easy as it sounds. The less armaments little countries haye, the less they are likely to start little Wars which will enbroil greater nations. There are ,some small powers which are among the most bellicose in the whole world. Even ‘if all: ethical considerations were left out of account, no modern war can eyer be worthwhile to any country on a purely material basis.