I suppose some reviewers must have called attention to a
rather remarkable passage in the recent Life of Admiral of the Fleet Lord Wester Wemyss, by Lady Wester Wemyss. If so, I have missed the reference. Lady Wester Wemyss, after referring to her husband's scorn of attempts to fix responsibility for the War on this personality or that—e.g., the Kaiser—goes on : " It was in a far different quarter that Wemyss believed the principal authors of the war were to be found. For years before its outbreak he had watched the baleful activities of the armament, trusts ; the manner in which they had, heavily subsidizing the Press, influenced public opinion in every country, stirring up strife. and creating an atmosphere of hostility, ill-will and suspicion be- tween nations.
"He had realized all the danger brought about by international armaments rings who, playing into one anther's hands, had a direct interest in the inflation of navy and army estimates and in war scares ; for the more armaments were increased abroad the more, obviously, had they to be increased at home.
"To end the era of destructive wars and help on the cause of disarmament would, he felt, be only possible by eliminating the element of private gain from the manufacture of- armaments, and thus make the waging of war no longer a source of private benefit."
The League of Nations Union itself would not put the case higher than that—if as high. It may well be thought too high. But Wemyss had spent' a lifetime in the public service, and he must be presumed to have based his opinions on something solid.
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