The meeting of the League Advisory Committee on opium and other drugs, which has Just concluded, produced more revelations of the Tremendous ill it tref in drugs.
Bulgaria is now one of the chief villains of the piece, particularly' Tegards heroin. When the trade in this was suppressed in Turkey, the trackers moved into Bulgaria, quick:
established four heroin. factories, land now have ten. Bulgaria's imports acetic anhydride gave the show Sway. This stuff Is used Sri the manu {acture of dyes, artfeal silk, asplein, fand heroin, Of the first three Bul gona produces nothing. "This aroused Suspicions which further investigation has amply confirmed.
You may remember that there was a military coup d'etat in Bulgaria re: cently, largely due to the corruption lot the old government. Ty is to be oped. the new one will do" better aguinst the drug barons.
Meanwhile Persia, Turkey and sogestavia all grow opium, and, with me legal demand steadily decreasing, they are casting far and wide for new Bllding principle of the new state ficial "kingly, way"—is
The conscience of the world has been much stirred by revelations of the extent of the drug trate, for which the League Committee gener= fany, and Sir Malcolm Delevingne (now retiring after" thirteen years? [devoted work) and Russell Pasha of] Egypt can really claim all the credit, and legislation and search-work have been tightened up enormously. fortunately it is a case "where the backsliding of a "few governments jundoes much of the good achieved by the many. So long as the raw mater fal Is. produced and exported, the [colossal profits and diabolical inten of the drug barons will keep the trade going.
Munitions Trade which is attracting attention is that in farms and munitions. Here the carjtoonist Lowe of the jingo "Evening JStandard" joins hands with the ultra-pacifist "News-Chronicle" and with sulphurous drawings attacks the arms manufacturers wherever he can And The "News Chronicle" has been "As regards the Far East, "The tion is" increasing" rapidly are Chine "other where lett produce Sed: Manchouluor he Chinese 'Gove nent ore manitesty unable. Stovent the' manufacture of opium Und other narcotics na bart of thet Sppears to be-a government monopoly. Temay be that the new state merely Intends to exclude foreign opium: but Sccounts. of the extension of the poppy elds Witt "leave unpleasant Boubts in the minds of readers. who have heard" from " Sapanese pro agandists that "Wangtao"—the Cor ed by the League of Nations invests the coming Saar plebiscite with enormous importance to Europe. The League's fifteen years control of the area expires in 1935 and the inhabitants have to vote for continued League control, union with Germany or union with' France. The League Is likely to get few votes and Germany many.
Thus the Saar may become a first Jclass strategical bone of contention leading to future war. The Saar lies across the French line of advance and France will not be unmindful of the advantage conferred on Germany in 1870 by the possession of the Saar region. The area is an ideal base for a march of invasion by either France or Germany.
The policy of Hitler is to secure the /Saar by financial arrangement or compensating concessions in advance of the plebiscite date but France regards the area as. strategically important to her security and will make no deal and even it the vote against her will insist on the Saar Dong maintained in a de-militarized And so the problem may drag on. for years in enmity. While France and Germany will arm against each other in Europe, there is the counter-art of Russia and Japan contending The Far East The Japanese have two potential opponents and mean to meet. the twain as maritime controller of the Pacific and asa mainland Power. Japan has definitely blocked—out Russia from southward movement and means to be on the whole flank of America's Pacife coastline The Russian preparations on the Siberian border of Manchoukuo involve the concentration of her main. army in Asia as using 2 long line of communication would involve defeat. She has two main objectives, the one being the defensive frontier line and the other the covering of Viadivostok by an independent force so that i shall not become a second Port Arthur. To cover these objectives Russia has made a base in the Far East at a point well to the north of Vladivostok and from it to radiate to {he sea flanks and part of the border This base is being linked with another on Lake Baikal, so that the field army on the general frontier jan be supplied from the latter if Vladivostok operations entail the: main attention of the other base. At both places munition factories "and fron works are being butt and both are to have immense all stores.
The main Red Army is already stationed in the Far East with the best of it in the Amur region. Intelligence reports place the strength of this latter force at eight divisions, two cavalry divisions, six tank batteries and fourteen aeroplane squadrons. These reports also credit the Japanese strength as five divisions, 400 aero-Blanes "and 150000 "'Manchouicio printing a series of extracts from book called "Merchants of Death" which Routledge are publishing a {fortnight hence. The moral of these Jerticles is summed up in the following comment by this paper to-day:
"Tlustration after Mustration been given in these articles of magnificent impartiality of the trader slaughter. We have been shown Boers shooting down British, soldiers with Britimemade guns: Germans Ranging dead on barbed wire issued for three months before by a Ger-fran" factory: Bulgarians repulsing French attacks with Prench "Tis, and Tallans mowing down Austrians with great Austrian shown that armament] firms are linked up with other like firms all over the world, and are further able to put their representa tives in dominating positions where they can manipulate governments.
There is no improbability in these charges. More than one _offci attempt was Jnever be Known) and equally egret gious graft of the American armament farms during the war, but they were always called off at the crucial moment, though the Federal Commission found' out enough to denounce the Jarmament firms in language as strong jas could well be used.
Moreover, what do we see to-day? [Despite the League Commission's relvelations of the awful wasting d jruetion of the Bolivia-Paraguay war, jand Me. Eden's impassioned appeal Geneva, it appears impossible to get the nations into line for an embargo fon the export of munitions to, the Gran Chaco. Czecho-slovakia made di@iculties from the first, and now Taly adds Russia and Japan to) the list of those who must promise not to send arms to South Americs [before she will bind herself.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.