BOOKS OF THE DAY

PAGE Krupp (Goronwy Rees) . .

. 58

Mr. Maugham's Pattern (Graham Greene) 59 The Progress of the Proletariat (Frederick Brown) 59 Neutrality for the United States (D. W. Brogan) 6o

Richard Porson (John Sparrow) .. Popular Psychology (James Smith) Fiction (Kate O'Brien)

Current Literature

PAGE . . 6o .. 61 62

. . 64

ARMS AND THE STATE

By GORONWY REES

IN my childhood during the War, the name of Krupp signified a bogey-man, a monster, which like the Kaiser ate babies for breakfast. After the War, Krupp was a name that occurred often in lectures on the League of Nations ; the conversion of the works from armaments to agricultural machinery was a favourite example of how easily swords can be beaten into ploughshares. Now the name has recovered its old associa- tions, and is once more the symbol of all those who produce weapons of destruction for profit. Krupp has always been a legend, but a legend which has changed in exact correspondence with the legend of Germany herself. This correspondence is not accidental ; in modern times the firm of Krupp has always worked and existed in peculiarly close relations with the State, their fortunes have fluctuated together, and this is not surprising since politically and industrially Prussia has always been organ- ised for war and not for peace. The history of Krupp is the history of Germany in little.

This may perhaps be illustrated by a curious example. Fritz Krupp, the son of Alfred Krupp, `` the Ordnance King," died in 1902 amid great public scandal. On Novem- ber 8th the Augsburger Postzeitung had stated that certain homo- sexual offences on the island of Capri, which were receiving great publicity in the Italian Press, closely concerned " a great industrialist of the highest reputation who is intimately con- nected with the Imperial Court." On November 15th the Socialist Vorwdrts printed an article called " Krupp on Capri " ; the issue was confiscated, the offices raided by the police and the Vortearts prosecuted for criminal libel. Krupp made no statement in his defence, and on November 22nd it was an- nounced that he had died of a stroke at his home. The Kolnische Zeitung asked if he had committed suicide, the prosecution of the Vortairts was withdrawn ; but the chief mourner at Krupp's funeral was the Kaiser, who delivered an oration defending his friend and attacking with wild abuse those whose calumnies " had caused him to fall a victim to his unassailable integrity." It is difficult not to be struck by this scene in which the Kaiser loyally identified himself with that society, at once corrupt, shallow, and brutal, of which in their different ways he, Krupp and Eulenberg were such typical representatives ; it assisted not only Krupp but the Second Reich into the grave.

Herr Menne's subject is indeed a fascinating one. In his popular yet interesting book he has traced the history of the family and firm from the Arndt Krupe first mentioned at Essen in 1587 to the present Herr Gustav Krupp von Bohlen who now sits, somewhat uncomfortably, on the right hand of Herr Hitler, thus preserving that alliance between the firm and the State which has been so useful and necessary to both of them. Herr Menne's book should be read, both for itself and for the ideas it suggests, by all who are interested in modern politics. Its greatest merit and interest, perhaps, are in emphasising certain characteristics, some fortuitous, some essential, which continually recur in this long history. As early as 1615 the family dealt in arms, but its modern greatness was founded by Alfred Krupp and followed foundation of the German Customs Union in 1833. Before that it strug- gled, like the State itself, with the difficulties of Germany's backward industrial development. But once the initial tech- nical difficulties of steel production were overcome, once the first order for guns was secured from the Ministry of War, once the alliance with the State was sealed, the firm entered that golden age of the armament king, the period, initiated by Bismarck, from 185o to the World War. Yet singularly enough it was never notable for inventions or technical advances even in its own special sphere of armaments ; its one original contribution Krupp. By Bernhard Menne. (Hodge. 12s. 6d.)

during the War was the submarine, and it left the long recoil cylinder gun to be exploited by a competitor, Ehrhardt.

Herr Menne is indeed extremely severe on Krupp's technical weaknesses, as on its dependence on State patronage, its exor- bitant prices and profits, its perpetual applications for loans and subsidies, its unscrupulous business methods ; one might almost believe that he credits armament firms with a moral responsibility for their misdeeds, crimes and errors. What he does not make clear is whit the State received for the heavy price it paid, and why it favoured the firm of Krupp above all others. Yet he gives all the clues to the answer. They are to be found in his facts and figures illustrating the enormous size and capacity of Krupp, or again in its obsession with mere immensity, as shown in the enormous steel casting which broke through the floor at the Paris Exhibition of 1855, and in that " technical monstrosity," Big Bertha, the gun which bombarded Paris at 8o miles' range, whose barrel had to be " straightened " after every round and replaced every 65 rounds. The obsession, and Alfred Krupp's methods of advertising it, were justified ; for what the Prussian State needed, at whatever cost, was a gun with the capacity to supply the needs in ordnance and ammunition of an army which finally expanded to a force of 5,000,000 men. Such a firm could demand what it liked ; it could afford to ignore inven- tions ; they could always be bought, stolen or imitated, and competitors like Ehrhardt could be driven out of business. And whatever its failings, Krupp never failed to expand capacity even in advance of demand and in the long run it never could expand too much for the State and the army.

Krupp's profits have been and are on a scale worthy of its production. Owing to the extremely meagre balance-sheets issued and to financial manipulation they are difficult to make out exactly ; but in the three years preceding the War 64,000,000 marks were paid in dividends and the personal fortune of Frau Bertha Krupp von Bohlen was given at 283,000,000 marks. In the War years gross profits, which Herr Menne says approximate more accurately to net profits, amounted to 432,000,000 marks. The immense activity of the firm in the year before the War gave rise to charges, which were investigated by the Reichstag, that Krupp had been informed of the date of its outbreak ; the truth may really be that nations do not go to war until industry is already working to capacity. This has indeed been used as an argument that modem wars cannot break out during a slump. But on November 9th, 1918, the works came abruptly to a standstill, 165,00o workers left the factories, Krupp was ordered to destroy its stocks and prohibited from making guns. The firm turned to everything that could tide it over this calamity, from agricultural machinery to steel dentures and knitting needles ; and in the hour of need the old connexion did not fail and the State, in a Socialist regime, came to Krupp's aid with orders for steel rails and rolling stock, which were supplemented by contracts for secret armaments. With such a regime Krupp had no difficulty in coming to terms, and it did not need to lose its identity in the great German steel trust—it remained as ever aloof, secretive, independent, and some of the aid it received from the State certainly went to financing Hitler. On his accession to power the State once again showed its appreciation of the great

i

" national institution." Gross profits in 1932 were 108,o00,000 marks, in 1933, 18,00o,000, in 1934, 177,000,000, in 1935, 232,000,000. Marx has said, I believe, that any revolution to succeed in Germany must be a total revolution. The Revolution that removed the Kaiser but left Krupp standing was no revolu- tion ; so long as Krupp stands we may be sure there has been no fundamental change in the methods and purposes of the German State.