Abstract
THE question of the extent of Germany's rearmament has recently taken a prominent place in Parliamentary debates and in the public mind, and a number of exaggerated views have been put forward. In one case, for example, it was stated in the House of Commons that no less than £1,500,000,000 had been spent upon warlike preparation during Herr Hitler's regime, and that, in the year 1935 alone, 600-800 millions sterling was spent on armaments in Germany. It is undoubted that Germany has been rearming since 1934, but it is essential that Herr Hitler's programme should be viewed in its true setting and perspective, and to this end Prof. W. A. Bone has prepared a critical examination of the position in Germany based on financial and industrial statistics. This survey, which appeared in The Nineteenth Century and After of May, sets out the facts of Germany's industrial activity in the years 1929-35, and shows clearly that the output of those materials upon which armament manufacture chiefly dependsiron and steel, nickel, copper, chromium, tungsten and other non-ferrous metals merely reflects the slump between 1929 and 1932 followed by the regaining of lost ground to an extent slightly less than that which has taken place in Great Britain. From the analysis given, it is clear that Germany's rearmament, while a factor to be reckoned with, does not account for more than a fraction of the very large monetary sums which have been alleged to be involved.
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Rearmament in Germany. Nature 137, 978 (1936). https://doi.org/10.1038/137978a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/137978a0