Let`s remember that there didn`t have to be a heck of a lot of "surrendering" going on, either. Those rifles were ALL THROUGH Southern Europe. Remember, the two Balkan Wars PLUS the Great War had spread things around nicely.
The old Habsburg Empire which died at the peace talks in 1919 comprised all of modern Austria, Hungary, Bosnia and Herzegovina, a piece of Romania, some of Ukraine, part of Poland, much of Bohemia dnd Moravia (modern Czech and Slovak Republics), large areas of the former Yugoslavia, a piece of Italy and Lord-only-knows-what-else. It was BIG and had twin capitals, Vienna and Budapest. The German Reich and the Kingdom of Bulgaria were its allies.
National entities regarded it as a point of honour to have their OWN weapons and their OWN ammunition. The conversion to 8x56R makes a lot of sense for a nation with a huge inventory of weapons and no longer the money to make new ones. The conversions could be done on older guns, cleaning up the chambers and leades and reboring the barrels to a cartridge which was based on their old one..... which had worked perfectly well.
To top that off, the manufacture of NEW military weapons was forbidden by the Versailles Treaties. Germany did build some Kar 98b rifles in the 1920s, but that was under the top-secret von Seeckt program. That is why my Kar98b has NO date and NO manufacturer`s markings: a completely-"black" rifle in every way.
They undertook the conversions beginning in 1930, at which time Adolf Hitler still was a beer-hall troublemaker with a Party which still had been illegal in much of Germany only a couple of years before. NOBODY, except for Adolf Hitler with his legendary fingerspitzengefuhl, expected the events of January 30, 1933....... much less what followed. Kar98k, for example, was finalised only in 1935, actual fullscale deliveries of the MG-34 followed only a couple of years later.
Besides, the League likely would have stepped on any attempt to co-ordinate the militaries of Austria, Hungary and Germany.... and the League still was a force of sorts in 1930-31. It only became a laughing-stock when it allowed The Duke to ravage Ethiopia.
Check my quote from Dr. Lightbody. You need a HUGE amount of background. I was fortunate indeed to have studied under him: he was THERE and he KNEW a lot of the people making the decisions.
Hope this helps.
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