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A2 - Wednesday, November 24, 1982 - North Shore News

listéning to Maggie Thatcher whimpering about
France’s sale of Super-Etendard jets and Exocet
missiles to ‘Argentina so soon after the Falklands
war. The Iron Lady is, said to be. “disappointed”

with France. ©

What does she expect?
Any country that makes as
much money out of the arms
trade as Britain surely-has no.

right to: complain when

somebody else starts hustling -

weapons with the same en-

thusiasm for a peso,
-~—~----egardless-- --ef —-the—con-—-ing -pro;

sequences.

Surely; Mrs. Thatcher

knows enough of her coun-
try’s bloody history of arms
deals to appreciate the utter
hypocrisy: of ‘her complaint.
The first ’great British’ arms
salesman, Stuart Rendel,
sold guns:to both the “North
and the South during the
American civil -war. The
morality of arms:sales hasn't
changed a bit since then.

- Even more . hypocritical
than Mrs. Thatcher, whose
machismo. Ss . well-known,
were the:Labour MPs in the
British House of Commons

who professed to be shocked |

that French-President Fran-
cois Mitterand,- a_ fellow
socialist who campaigned
against the- arms industry,
has turned out to be ; an eager
merchant of death.

In his excellent book, The
Arms. Bazaar, Anthony
Sampson points. out that
when Harold Wilson éame to
power in England in 1964,
one of the first things-he did
was to put the resources of
the government
disposal of arms merchants,
ste up the sales of
ees in the search for
foreign currency.

As in Washington, where

the Democrats were ag-
gressively pushing arms
sales, “it was the party of ap-
parent compassion that was
to prove the more determin-
ed to sell arms,” Sampson

Britain and Frarice’-

at the

writes.

In fact, it was the British
Labour Party that issued the
classic statement of am-

bivalence with regard to

weaponry: |
“While. we attach the.

highest - importance to mak-

arms - -control and . ‘disarma- _the arms e doesn’t have a

ment, we must also take ©
what ‘practical steps we can
to ensure: that this. country
does not. fail to secure” its
rightful share of this valuable
commercial market.” __
It is a fact of life that both

become to a considerable
degree economically depen-
dent on arms exports, mostly
to the Third World.

It is another fact of life
that it is the Third World
countries themselves which
have blocked any attempts
at the United Nations to
even examine the arms
trade.

The developing nations
are spending more’on arms

than they are on health and _-

education ‘combined. Global

spending on weaponry. has |
reached‘ $600 billion a. year,
or $1 million every ‘minute...

It has doubled since 1975.

‘The. huge expansion . -of a
arms sales was prompted by. *
the world-wide withdrawal...”
of British _and- American. °
recession . in the:
West,. and the flow of oil —
money into the Middle East.
Cynically, the U.S. and the -
U.K. wete content’ to ‘sell ~
arms in the wake of their °

forces;

pull-outs, and to pay for
their oil with new arms sales.

The uncontrolled | free
trade in weapons puts a
premium on arms because

‘have=- ~-Why?~Be aus

‘I find ‘it amusing - ina ‘tragic sort of way - the arms traffic alone has the

_ ability to expand. its markets
rapidly -and’’ almost in-
definitely by.playing one side
against, the. other — the cur-
rent example -being Britain

and Argentina, now both

busily re-arming.
The -arms business has
been described, by an arms

dealer himself, as being.

“never. be plumbed and why it

‘will go on forever”. re er

workers are une

American defence budget,

has drivén interest:‘rates up
to the point where no one

-can build houses any more.

Saturday, November 27

sewing and
knitting

flowers and
candles

Handcrafted Toys

10:30 am - 3 pm

activites
tea garden

soup and sandwiches
2725 St. Christopher's Road, North Vancouver

O

music
games

985-7435

dustry: where ‘some’ “15, 000 * eps

As. the: Seon fans nps,

quanincrees COWEST PRICES
OR YOUR MONEY REFUNDED 7 DAYS)

~ @UARANTEED LARGEST SELECTION
eo “ALL THE RECOGNIZED NAME BRANDS _

- _ SATISFACTION’ GUARANTEED
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“SUNDAYS: 12: to A a MeNe

specialty foods
king

The Vancouver —__.
WALDORF SCHOOL

‘*... education for the whole child”

ec

A ROWDY “party” in to be kept down about 11:30 and broke. up the party about
Horseshoe Bay ended up p-m. They finally moved in 3am.
host. a.$350. fine

ping down on. rowdy parties, - 7
carrying a maximum fine of oy
‘Last week's conviction
related to a party held ‘at
6480 Fox. Street.
Horteghice: E Bay | last ‘August