London, Nov, 8.
'A. debate on the private trade in arms, during which a statement on the subject was made by the Foreign Secretary, Sir John Simon, occupied the attention of the House of Commons to-day.
The debate was raised on a Labour resolution moved by Major Clement R. Altlee, member for the Limehouse division of Stepney. The resolution was defeated by 279 votes 10 08, Replying, Six John Simon said that the Government had been glad. to ind Parliamentary time for this im~ portant subject which, outside the House, had often been treated as though it were a simple issue on which a conclusion could be reached almost automatically by anyone who was not either a fool or a knave.
They had to proceed on a basis that arms were going to be produced by the state, "A volvate armament firm, on the other hand, had its skilled staff, its organization and its machinery, which was producing a certain quantity of armaments and that side of its Business could not In fact be main tained without foreign order they were to be plunged calamity of war—and that was the assumption of the debate—then these armament firms and private ship. Yards, owing to their previous oranization and their acquired atti tude, were able to switch over very rapidly from their level of peace production to their maximum of war production,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.