U.S.A. and the Arms Traffic The evidence before the Senate
Committee that is enquiring into the American munitions industry has already produced some startling disclosures. Not that there is anything astonishing in ordinary business understandings in what is regarded as a normal and respectable industry, though it does deal in the instru- ments of death. But the spectacle of two allied firms, one American and one British, actively canvassing two -hostile governments (those of Chile and Peru) for orders and helping each other to get them, with friendly hints as to the value of a little bribery here and there, is almost more than the most ardent advocates of the Senate enquiry could have hoped for. As for the letter in which Sir Charles Craven, Managing Director of Vickers-Armstrong, is alleged to have written that "my friend at the Admiralty" would help the firm to get certain foreign submarine orders, comment must be deferred till after the full 'enquiry which will no doubt be made into the allegation on this side.
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