Evening star., 1926-09-27
THE REAL RACE
OF ARMAMENTS
By William Martin.
Editor journal de Geneve, Geneva.

The real race of armaments is now
economic. 1t does not matter very
much whether you have 100000 or
zoe. 900 men, If you have the means of
equipping 100000 and providing
them with ammunition. And 1t does
not matter whether you have 100000
or 100000 if you are dependent on
your enemies for your food supply.
That Is why now all the states lay
stress not on the possession of big
army. but on the possession of great
industrial resources.
You do not need. as a matter of
fact. a great effort of argumenta-
ton to convince the European peO-
pies they should reduce their arma.
ments. The financial and budgetary
difficulties they all face are quite
sufficient arguments. There is in
Europe an obvious feeling for dis
armament. In fact, all the European
countries have already reduced their
armaments to some extent.
The new issue of the League of
Nations big year book on armaments
gives some very impressive figures
on that. There is much more of a
decrease than the figures indicate.
because in the figures before the war
C'SA COoN AIdu a tCiluCIlCS lO give lOO
low a figure for the army. and actu-
ally the armies were bigger than they
were on paper. but now it is just the
contrary-every country has a tend.
ency to announce a big army. but
In most countries the men on paper
really do not exist in the army. The
armies of Europe are really much
smaller now than you believe. and
that is why we think the danger is
no longer really military.
But we are very much impressed
by the danger of protection, because
protection is, first of all. very ex-
pensive for the people because it
raises the cost of living. You are not
protected unless you are better pro-
tected than the other man. So you
have always to make your taxes
higher in order that your army may
be larger than that of the other
countries. That is very big and
important aspect of the question. be-
cause European people cannot afford
to give, for a long time. great sums
TO support artificial industries, and
the day may arrive when the people
will say, as they did in 1914, that
it is better to have a break than go
along in this way for a very long
time.
The second thing is the unrest
which 1t Is creating in all the people.
Every nation is creating new arti-
fetal industries to be independent of
the other nations. and the other ma
tions do the same. This tends to
create distrust between nations,
which is just the situation out of
which wars usually arise
We are under the impression that
the wars will not come. for a time
at least, because we have so many
soldierS-but we have not as many
as one believes. We are also under
the impression that war could come
because of this feeling of unrest and
the difficulties arising on account
of protection. and that is why we
lay so much emphasis upon the
economic side of the problem. 1t
does not mean. however, that we are
paving no attention to the other side.
1t has been said the great public
does not appreciate the reality of
these dangers. | do not think that
is true in Europe. In Europe you
will find that ornaments are too en-
pensive in most countries. and |
think that most of the people realize
what armaments mean.
Protectionism is. at the present
time, the new and true aspect of the
race of armaments. And 7 regard
the Economic Conference which is to
be held at Geneva as the first
and most important disarmament
conference.
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