Editorial: The Powers and their Armed Forces (1947)

Editorial from the April 1947 issue of the Socialist Standard

When Mr. Bevin reached Moscow on March 8th to attend the Four-Power Conference on the settlement of German and Austrian Peace treaties he said

“We have come here to work harder together to hammer out a just and durable peace" (Sunday Express, March 9th, 1947).

Stalin had just written of his “constant belief in Anglo-Soviet-American co-operation in peace as in war,” and similar peaceful protestations were made by U S.A. and French spokesmen.

We have heard all this before, in the years between the end of World War I and the beginning of World War II. How little has changed. Different men, with different party labels continue the same capitalist struggle for power. The U.S.A. announces its intention of asking for exclusive “strategic trusteeship” over the 623 former Japanese mandated islands in the Pacific (Manchester Guardian, February 28th, 1947); and the Secretary of the U.S. Navy explains that the U.S. Navy “will continue to operate in the Western Pacific . . . The Navy,” he said, “ had more or leas inherited from Britain the job of keeping the sea lanes open and stabilising areas from which exports came ” (Times, March 1st, 1947).

Then, in response to a request by the British Government for financial aid in propping up the Monarchist regime in Greece, President Truman “told the Congress leaders to-day of a new U.S. foreign policy, under which the U.S. must intervene in Near East politics with the full weight of its economic power. It is confirmed that Mr. Truman will ask for a £62,500,000 direct loan to Greece as a substitute for Britain’s financial aid ” (News Chronicle, March 11th, 1947).

A day earlier it was disclosed in Washington that “Turkey has now asked for U.S. help to guard her frontiers against Russia ” (Daily Mail, March 10th, 1947).

The Manchester Guardian reported (February 28th, 1947), that the Russian Government (much to the consternation of the American Communists) had given its consent to the American claim for the Pacific islands; a move interpreted as indicating that Russia hoped to get U.S. approval for some of its own annexations. Meanwhile the Russian Government is trying to get Norwegian consent to set up military bases in the Spitzbergen Peninsula and has just made a new agreement with Poland, giving a £7 million loan and arranging for the supply of military equipment and armaments for the Polish army. Examples could be multiplied, and of course the British and French Governments are engaged in similar manoeuvres in areas deemed to be vital to their imperial interests.

Behind the peaceful words of the politicians are the armed forces they keep to back up their demands. The American budget for 1946-47 provided expenditure on defence of about £4,000 million.

The British Government in 1946-47 spent about £1,000 million, equal to 28 per cent of the total budget expenditure (News Chronicle, February 22nd, 1947), and announcement was made on that date of the Russian budget for 1947. The Communist Daily Worker analysed the figures as follows:—

”The Budget anticipates a surplus of 20,100,000,000 roubles (about £1,310,000,000 at the current rate of exchange) providing for an expenditure of 371,400,000,000 roubles during the year. Armed forces expenditure is down to 18 per cent. of the total expenditure, compared with 24 per cent. last year.” (Daily Worker, February 22nd, 1947).

From this it will be gathered merely that Russian expenditure on the armed forces is a smaller percentage of total expenditure than it was in 1946. If, however, the reader takes the trouble to work out what 18 per cent. amounts to at the rate of exchange used by the Daily Worker he will find that it means £4,457,000,000 to be spent on the armed forces. Figures do not lie but it is certainly true that the coy use of percentages can hide a very interesting piece of information.

From all of which it is evident that though private capitalism in U.S.A. and the State varieties of capitalism in Britain and Russia may talk about lasting peace they none of them neglect to give paramount attention to capitalism’s foremost industry, war industry.