The Private Manufacture: of Arms More than usual interest will
be taken in the fate of the Bill which passed the French Chamber by a large majority at the end of last week for: the nationalisation of the French armament industry. • The decision of principle is clearly the beginning, not the end, of the difficulties of its application—diffictilties which the British Government have always professed to find insuperable when a similar measure has been urged on them. M. Daladier, in intro- ducing the Bill, foreshadowed the total nationalisation of concerns exclusively employed in armaments manufacture (there are said to be no such firms in this country) and a partial nationalisation of concerns partly so employed, with compensation in all cases. It is an open secret that one of the driving forces behind the measure is M. Jouhaux, the influential secretary of the Confederation Generale du Travail. The Comite des Forges, which is always credited with a sinister capacity for pulling the strings of French polities, has not yet shown its hand. It is perhaps biding its time until M. Blum's Government has lost something of the charm of novelty. Meanwhile, the Report of the Royal Commission which has been investigating the problem in thiS country must be due soon. When it appears, the Government will certainly not be allowed to forget the issue.
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