Armament > Memorandum relating to the proposals of the Turkish delegation (Cong. D. 78)

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For this reason, it would be desirable to consider the complete abolition of a large number of
armament factories and a wise and safe distribution of the other centres of manufacture, in
which each State would have an interest equal to the full amount of its orders, to be carried
out under the effective supervision of all the other parties concerned.
Chemical Arms.
As regards chemical warfare, the Turkish delegation considers that, at the present time
the gravest anxiety felt by the various peoples at the thought of a future war relates to technical
surprise. Any army that is conscious of its inability to attain its objective by the ordinary
and usual means of warfare endeavours to secure weapons unknown to its adversary and
capable of throwing him into confusion and thus of leading to victory by surprise.
It goes without saying that, when peoples are assured of a peaceful existence without
having to provide their armies with methods more effective than those of their neighbours,
and when the principle of equalisation has produced its salutary effects, there will be no further
need to seek for and to use the means in question. But, even after complete prohibition of
chemical warfare by international treaties, the chemical industry, restricted to its true purpose,
should be internationalised in the same way as the manufacture of war material.
It would, moreover, be absolutely necessary to take the first step in the direction of
prohibition by a complete destruction at the outset of all means of chemical warfare at present
in existence.