Munitioneers

FOREIGN NE WS

Some exceptionally well-dressed European gentlemen of all extractions slipped into Cannes on the Riviera last week, put up at Le Carlton and went about together as inseparably and discreetly as the senior class of a divinity school. One night their limousines purred over to Nice where they attended the Opera en masse. Another day they went for a ride as far as Menton, alighted and strolled about two & two, discussing the affairs of Krupp, Schneider, Vickers, Skoda et al.

No Krupp or Schneider was present, though Gustav Krupp von Bohlen and Eugene Schneider were represented by trusted agents. Only the exalted French munitions family of de Wendel candidly sent a representative bearing its great name, eldest brother Humbert de Wendel. Ostensibly the 107 delegates of Europe's munitioneers were meeting as the International Railmakers' Association, and on the Riviera also was that blithe international railmaker, Charles M. Schwab. Explained he: "My doctors say I react favorably to the excitement of roulette."

After a three-day session the International Railmakers adjourned, announcing: ''We have renewed the Agreement of the International Railmakers' Association."

"What is that?" asked correspondents. "When was it first adopted? Can you tell us any of its terms?"

Snapped a spokesman: "Details of that agreement have never been revealed and remain unavailable." Few days later, after the Hitler bombshell at Berlin (see below), North Dakota's irate Gerald Nye, chairman of the U. S. Senate's munitions quiz, thundered: "The munitions makers have at last talked Germany into scrapping the Treaty of Versailles so they can sell their wares!"

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