STATEMENT I.
100
CONFIDENTIAL.
STATEMENT OF CONSIDERATIONS TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT BY THE FOREIGN
OFFICE IN ADVISING ON THE ISSUE OF LICENCES FOR THE EXPORT OF WAR MATERIAL FROM THE UNITED KINGDOM.
1. When advising on applications for licences for the export
of war material from the United Kingdom consideration is given
in the Foreign Office, amongst other things, to the conditions
obtaining in the country to which the arms are to be exported.
The following cases are illustrative of this principle:-
Revolution in Nicaragua, 1926.
2. Messrs. B.S.A. Guns Limited applied to the Board of
Trade in September 1926 for a licence to export rifles to a
government which had been set up in Nicaragua as the result of
a revolution. The Board of Trade were informed that the then
existing government in Nicaragua had not been recognised by
His Majesty's Government and that as there would be an
inconsistency in sanctioning the export of arms to it, the
Foreign Office were not disposed to agree to the export of arms
to Nicaragua until a government was in power which had been
recognised by His Majesty's Government.
Civil War in Afghanistan, 1929.
30
In January 1929 the Afghan Minister called at the
Foreign Office and stated that he had received a private
message from ex-King Amanulla instructing him to ascertain
whether His Majesty's Government would render assistance by
supplying Amunulla with arms and ammunition in order to
enable him to recover the throne. He was informed that
international considerations prevented the interference by
His Majesty's Government in the internal affairs of Afghanistan
by giving assistance in the form of arms to one or other of the
parties when there was no generally acknowledged ruler or
government in the country.
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