Abstract
EVIDENCE relating to the State control of chemical industry and its bearing on the armaments traffic and its control was submitted to the Royal Commission on the Manufacture of and Trading in Arms at the Middlesex Guildhall on February 5–6. In a written statement of evidence which covered the whole range of its enterprise from the manufacture of explosives to fertilisers, dyes, paints and lightning fasteners, Imperial Chemical Industries, Ltd., denied that it is in any way party to any “International Armaments Ring”. Military products formed only 1–8 per cent of total sales during the last five years and only 0–9 per cent of foreign sales. While not engaged in the manufacture of military products to any extent, its plant, designed for commercial products, can readily be converted to other uses should it ever become necessary. Nitric acid, which is produced in considerable quantities, is a raw material for practically all high explosives, and by-products from the hydrogenation of coal could afford intermediates used in the manufacture of high explosives. The manufacture of nitrocellulose for industrial purposes could easily be switched over to manufacture for high explosives.
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State Control of the Chemical Industry. Nature 137, 264 (1936). https://doi.org/10.1038/137264c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/137264c0