The Arms Traders _ The hearings before the American Senate's
enquiry into the arms traffic are bringing their daily crop of dfsclosures. The most disturbing of . this week's batch is the revelation regarding the importation of aeroplane engines into Germany in rapidly increasing numbers. It was given in evidence'that enough American equipment had recently been going to Germany to equip 100 aero- planes a month, that the German aeroplane firms had been urging greater speed in the fulfilment of orders and that Germany, which is incapable of paying debts to Lancashire, apparently has no difficulty at all in paying cash in New York before shipment. On the question of whether these imports into Germany are perinissible the usual difficulty- arises. An aeroplane engine is an aeroplane engine, and though the Treasurer of the United Aircraft Export Company admitted that his firm's engines could easily be synchronized to permit of the mounting of machine-guns, that does not militate against their use in ordinary civil machines, and Germany would, of course, claim that they were meant for that. The armaments industry is in the dock and it is very far from leaving the court without a stain on its character. The case for rigorous national and international control is becoming overwhelming.
