NAVAL ESTIMATES

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 122, 5 March 1936, Page 5

NAVAL ESTIMATES

AN INCREASE IN BRITAIN. EXPENDITURE ON AIR ARM. i ENSURING ADEQUATE DEFENCE. (United Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 10.25 a.m.) LONDON, March 4. The Naval Estimates do not provide for a now construction programme, which is the subect of supplementary estimates which will be presented to Parliament later. The estimates total £69,930,000, compared with £60,050,000 last year, while £4,645,000 is required to make progress, in construction already authorised.

The First Lord of the Admiralty (Viscount Monsell) is explaining in a supplementary paper that the construction of the 1933-34 cruiser squadron is proceeding more rapidly than was anticipated. There is an increase of £1,082,000 in the expenditure on the Fleet Air Arm, excluding the cost of aircraft for new ships. This will be devoted mainly to re-equipment and maintenance of existing flights.

Twenty-nine capital ships and cruisers are now fitted with catapults. Thirty-seven aircraft.arc embarked on vessels so fitted.

Provision for the maintenance of the Elect, including ddfencNe-against-air work, is increased by £3,935,000.. Lord Monsell states that it is of vital importance that there should be close co-operation between the three fighting services. WORLD ARMAMENTS REVIEWED EXTENSION BY GREAT POWERS. CANNOT BE DISREGARDED. LONDON, March 3.

British policy, says the White Paper, has been steadily directed to discouraging competition in armaments. The recent naval agreement with Germany and the present effort to conclude a new naval agreement with the "Washington Powers are instances, and it is true that a general raising of levels all round is no guarantee of peace. But in determining our own defence programme it is impossible to disregard the extent of preparations which have been made by others. In March, it is stated, conscription on the basis of one year's service was re-established, and the German Government announced a peace-time army establishment of 36 divisions, with a strength of 550,000 men. There has been continuous development in the German air force. The expansion of the Gorman navy had been limited to a definite proportion of Britain's naval forces, but within this limitation the new German navy -was an addition to world armaments which could not be left out of account.

In France two years' service was introduced last year. The air force was organised and re-equipped. The fortresses on the north-eastern frontier are being extended. In Belgium army expenditure shows a heavy increase, while the Italian army has been on a war footing for .six months, and in October it was stated that 1,200,000 men were under arms, and further' recruits have since been called up.

The Soviet forces, according to the latest figures, now total 1,300,000 men and a further increase of the Soviet air force is in progress.

In Japan, re-equipment of the army is proceeding on a comprehensive; programme. In 1935-36, the army and navy accounted, for 46 per cent of the total budgetary expenditure while the deficit on the budget was £45,000,000. In the United States the total annual expenditure on defence has risen since last year from £108,000,000 to £180,000,000, exclusive of provision for such non-effective charges as pensions —which in the British estimates for 1935 represented no less than £,18,000,000, out of a total of £134,000,000. The paper adds: "We have really no alternative in tho present state of the world but to review our defences and provide the necessary means, both of safeguarding ourselves against aggression, and playing our part in the enforcement by common action of our international obligations. The Government will continue to do its utmost to improve international relations and promote an agreement for the limitation of armaments."

Proposals for defence outlined in the White Paper do not betoken any abandonment of international policy hitherto pursued. It examines the armament situation in various countries. German rearmament is not concealed, but there is a groat deal of secrecy about details

GRATIFICATION IN FRANCE. "BRITAIN COMPELLED TO FACE FACTS." LONDON, March 3. The Paris correspondent of the "Daily Telegraph" says that British rearmament has unquestionably been received with the utmost gratification and relief. It is felt that Britain is at last compelled to face facts, which will benefit European peace. The Paris correspondent of tho "Daily Mail" says the first reaction in influential quarters is of regret that the rearmament is not faster and more extensive.