Armament > Conference for the control of the international trade in arms, munitions and implements of war

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Second Category. — Fire-arms which are included in the above-mentioned list, but which
are adapted both to warlike and also to other purposes. Here, again, the Convention of St.
Germain lays down two rules:
(1) It recognises the right of each High Contracting Party to determine independently,
according to the circumstances indicated, whether exportation is required for a purpose
other than that of war, and, if so, to authorise such exportation;
(2) It imposes the obligation to give publicity to all such export authorisations.
Third Category. •— All arms and munitions not included in the above-mentioned list, even
if they are adapted solely to army purposes. This category covers all unrifled and other than
breech-loading fire-arms and all side-arms, including bayonets. No mention is made of this
third category in the Convention of St. Germain, which imposes no regulations upon it, requires
no publicity and leaves the international traffic entirely free and uncontrolled.
In the draft submitted by Admiral the Marquis de Magaz, three categories of arms are also
distinguished — arms of war, sporting arms and arms employed for personal defence.
It will be seen that the distinction is entirely different from that drawn in the Convention
of St. Germain; it is also less definite, and the author realises that it cannot be applied unless
a list of all arms falling within each category is annexed to the Convention.
Category I. — It appears from the wording of Article 1 that this list would be much more
extensive than that given in the Convention of St. Germain. It should include all side-arms,
together with chemical products and war material. The draft submitted by Admiral the Marquis
de Magaz seems to be more stringent than the Convention of St. Germain, inasmuch as it extends
the export prohibition to arms, products and material which have not hitherto been affected.
But it is not correct to say that Admiral the Marquis de Magaz proposes to apply a stricter regime
to this extended first category. The new measures which he has embodied in his draft are rather
executive measures, intended to ensure that full effect will be given to the principle of prohibiting
the international traffic in arms and munitions of war. Article 3, however, is expressed in such
general terms that it would seem to aim at binding Governments to prohibit the sale of weapons
of war to private individuals, even in their own countries. This is a new principle, wholly foreign
to the Convention of St. Germain, which deals exclusively with the regulation of the international
traffic.
Category II. •— Sporting arms. In this connection the draft submitted by Admiral the
Marquis de Magaz goes considerably beyond the Convention of St. Germain, and attempts to
secure objects which the authors of that Convention did not so much as consider.
(1) As regards the international traffic, the provisions of the draft are not confined to
requiring and arranging for publicity; they restrict to a large degree the right of produc¬
ing States to authorise export. Two licences — one from the exporting country and
another (previous) from the importing country — are required for the export of sporting
arms.
(2) The draft even regulates the home trade in arms in each country; for example, Govern¬
ments must undertake to prohibit the sale even of a single sporting gun to any person
who has not previously obtained a personal licence.
Category III. ■— Arms employed for personal defence. According to the draft, arms of this
class are subject to the same stringent regime as sporting arms in regard both to the international
trade and to sales on the home market. The draft further imposes on Governments a number
of detailed obligations, namely:
(a) To exercise strict supervision over the home and international trade;
(b) To guard against the accumulation of stocks and against clandestine traffic;
(c) To consent to a close international co-operation with the above objects;
{d) To organise a complete licensing and registration system whereby all arms sold may
be traced.
This strict regulation of the home as well as the international trade in arms used for sport
and for defence is open to very serious objections in principle:
(1) It departs from the idea by which the authors of the Covenant (Article 23) were guided
— the same idea upon which the Convention of St. Germain is founded, and which
inspired the decisions of the Third and Fourth Assemblies of the League of Nations.
It must be remembered that the only question submitted to the Temporary Mixed
Commission by those Assemblies was the question of the international traffic in arms
and munitions. Whereas its scope should be limited to organising the control of the
international traffic with a view to the prevention of war and of secret arming, the
draft is directed towards an entirely different end •— that of imposing upon Governments
certain regulations governing the home trade in arms of every kind.
(2) The draft introduces a system of regulations designed to increase personal safety within
each country and to prevent murder and personal injury. Here it clearly encroaches
upon the province of the local police and infringes national sovereignty.
(3) With its complicated formalities of export and import licences, the draft practically
kills the international trade in sporting arms and weapons of defence; this will have the
disastrous result of increasing the clandestine traffic.
(4) There is every reason to fear that the Convention will not be ratified by any State which
has a considerable armament industiy. The United States certainly will not ratify it.