The Merchants of Death by H.C. Engelbrecht & F.C. Hanighen

Author:H.C. Engelbrecht & F.C. Hanighen [H.C. Engelbrecht and F.C. Hanighen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-61016-101-5
Publisher: Dodd, Mead and Company Inc.
Published: 1934-11-06T16:00:00+00:00

Krupp 31,625 66,676

Rhein. M. & M. F. 1,448 9,568

Deutsche W. & M. F. 5,467 10,778

Koeln. Pulverf. 4,329 11,921

Austria-Hungary (Kronen)

Skodawerke 5,607 11,325

Poldihuette 1,360 3,615

Waffenfabrik Steyr 2,749 14,269

Hirtenberger Patronenfabrik 1,709 6,967

France (francs)

Schneider-Creusot 6,900 10,405

Hotchkiss _____ 8,026

Commentry Fourchambault 4,792 6,663

Usines a Gaz 8,776 11,536

Usines Metallurgiques de la Basse Loire

2,836 6,777

Trefiloires du Havre 4,321 8,475

Of the great arms merchants comparatively little is known during the period of the World War. They kept themselves hidden from public view. Two revealing incidents are told about Basil Zaharoff. The first occurred at the outbreak of the war. When Jaurès was assassinated, one of the first acts of the French government was to throw a guard around the house of Sir Basil—an act which was far more than a perfunctory tribute to an important personage.5 The second is derived from one of the critical periods of the war, when peace sentiment was making headway among many of the war-weary Allies. Then it was that the great arms salesman declared himself in favor of carrying on the war “to the bitter end” (jusqu’à bout). His sentiment uttered in the council of the mighty, must have become pretty well known, for Lord Bertie records it in his diary.6

Little as the arms merchants and the war contractors attracted public attention, they were nonetheless busy as usual. Numerous incidents have become known which show the vast power of these groups and their “trafficking with the enemy” in the midst of the war.

Take, for example, the story of the Nobel Dynamite Trust. This huge international trust combined German and English companies and it was found expedient at the outbreak of the war to dissolve the trust. This was done and the shares of the company were distributed between German and English stockholders. The strange part of this transaction was that both governments permitted it. Any other company would probably have come under the provisions of the law by which enemy property was confiscated.7

The international solidarity of the arms makers is shown in another incident. The great iron mines of the French armament industry are in the Briey basin. This is the veritable home of the Comité des Forges and the Union des Industries Métallurgiques et Minières. But these mines are geologically so closely related to the German mines in Lorraine that Briey was partly owned by German steel makers. Early in the war the Germans took control of the Briey basin and they immediately began to work the mines for themselves. A German map had fallen into the hands of General Sarrail on which the great mines of the French arms industry were marked with the notation “Protect these.” These orders had been carried out, and the Germans took over the properties virtually intact.8

One would suppose now that the French would bend all their efforts to destroying the advantage the Germans had gained in the Briey basin. No such thing. The region was never effectively bombarded, either by cannons or by airplanes, though sham attacks took place. And practically all through the war the Germans were extracting valuable ores here for the prosecution of the war.

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