The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1925-09-05
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TN the month Of June a conference
4 on the question Of the commerce in
arms completed its work. Forty-three
states had taken part in it; it was
summoned at the suggestion of the
League Of Nations. States which do
not belong to the League of Nations,
also took part in the conference: Ger
many, the United States. Turkey
Egypt: the Soviet Union alone did
not take part.
1t is not difficult to guess why no
representative of the Soviet Union
was present at the conference. Those
who promoted the conference knew
very well, when they summoned it at
Geneva that no Soviet representatives
would put foot on the soil of Switzer-
land, where Comrade Vorovsky was
murdered without expiration being
made. And they were right. By re-
fusing to accept the suggestion of the
Soviet Union to hold the conference
in some other country, the leaders of
the conference ensured themselves
perfect freedom Of action. A repre-
sentative of the people, numbering 1870
million of the worker and peasant
state was lacking. AS we shall see
below, they made the best use of this
circumstance.
The history of the conference is as
follows: After the conclusion of the
war with Germany, the allies had
enormous stores-of arms at their dis
pesaI. The constant conflicts Of inn
perialist greed in the colonial and
semi-colonial countries were decided
with arms which had been bought
from some allied state or other. Thus
for instance, in the Greco-Turkish
war, Greece, which was carrying out
England's commands, received arms
from the English stores. But the pur-
chasers of arms might later on turn
them against those who had sold
them. This is why the convention Of
Saint German Of Sept. 10. 1919, pro-
hibits the sale of arms in a whole
number of zones; England carefully
protected her security in Persia,
Africa, etc. Such ll-preserved and
simple solution of the question was
a hindrance to the United States,
which refused to ratify the conven-
ton. Since then a commission of the
League of Nations has worked for more
than Az years at this question. The
result of this work was the summon
ing of the conference at Geneva
A DRAFT convention which had
"A been worked out by the commits
sion, was laid before the conference
for discussion. According to one OF
the points of the draft, the convention
is to come into force after its ratifica-
ton by twelve states, among them
the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union
was not represented at the confer
ence, but this difficulty did not trouble
it's members. The representatives of
England proposed to substitute for the
Soviet -Czecho-Slovakia, and
this proposal was accepted.
In general the resolutions OF the
conference are to the effect that
agreements as to the sale of arms and
munitions should be concluded ex-
clusively thru the governments, but
publicly and on the responsibility Of
the latter. There is also proviso that
POLAND, Roumania, Esthonia, Finland
and Latvia alone are not under the
obligation of making known the guam
tity and nature of the arms and war
material purchased"
Why just these countries? The con-
ference assumes that, as they border
on the Soviet Union, they are ex-
posed to the danger of assault from
the Bolsheviki But what IL, being