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(7) An embargo on the export of arms to a particular
country or countries may be in force.
Action by Service Departments.
27. The concern of the Service Departments is to keep
under observation the general trend of exports of arms. This
information is conveniently obtained from the applications
for licences. If any unusual movement of arms were observed,
which bore upon the policy of His Majesty's Government, it
would be expected that the Service Departments would call the
attention of the Foreign Office to the facts.
A watch is also kept upon the applications to ensure
that no weapons of secret design are exported; but as stated
below the understanding with the manufacturers is so close that
the possibility can virtually be ruled out, quite apart from
the operation of the licensing system.
The Arms Export Licensing System.
Objects of Licensing System.
28. From the historical part of this memorandum it will
have been observed that before the War there was a power to
prohibit but no licensing system. It may therefore be
presumed that the primary objects of pre-war legislation were
to conserve national resources and to prevent in time of
actual or threatened war the export of arms and other material
for use against this country and its allies. The War brought
with it both prohibition of exports and a licensing system
which survived after the War. Since then the powers have
been adapted in peace time to other purposes both national
and international.
A problem created by the War is described
in the preamble to the Arms Traffic Convention 1919 as "the
accumulation in various parts of the world of considerable
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