A BIG INCREASE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 124, 7 March 1936, Page 5

A BIG INCREASE

BRITAIN’S AIR ESTIMATES. PROGRAMME FOR EXTENSION. UNPRECEDENTED IN PEACE-TIME United Press Association— Copyright) (Received This Day, 10.10 a.m.) LONDON, March 6. The Air Estimates total £39,000,000, a net increase of £13,015,000, excluding supplementary grants totalling approximately £7,000,000 for extension of the Air Force programme and special measures in connection with the ItaiorAbyssinian dispute necessitating the dispatch of substantial air reinforcements to the Mediterranean and North and East African areas, also Kenya and Somaliland. The Secretary of State for Air (Viscount Swinton) directed attention to the fact that the expansion programme necessitates the training of 25,000 pilots and 22,000 airmen in less than two years. The success that has thus for attended recruiting indicates that the programme, despite its unexpected peace time scale, will be duly achieved. The civil aviation vote is £908,000, which is an increase of 28 per cent, over last year’s figures, £204,000 being devoted to improving ground facilities with a view to speeding up the existing services. The sum of £20,000 is earmarked for Imperial Airways’ experimental flights on the Atlantic, and £75,000 is allocated for the construction of the necessary flying boat and land ’plane bases. Imperial Airways subsidies for the European-England-India services are lower, in accordance with an agreement. Special subsidies are allocated in respect to tlio New York-Bermuda and Penang-Hongkong services. The latter is to be opened as soon as France authorises operation over IndoC’hina.

QUESTION OF FOOD SUPPLIES. LESSON OF THE GREAT WAR. (United Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, March 5. A correspondent of the Sun-Herald News Service says that Britain’s food supply is among outstanding problems of the' defence programme. The last war’s unforgettable lesson, that Britain could only feed herself for six weeks during a blockade, has caused comprehensive Government investigations into possible preparations for a recurrence. ■ The Sun-Herald (Service understands that the Government discussion of food proposals is connected with Mr .Baldwin’s statement in the House of Commons on March 3, that the Committee on Imperial Defence is. considering means of increasing production of home-grown foodstuffs. It is believed that the proposals include the following: Control of imports of overseas foodstuffs, by either quotas or earmarked tariffs : Propaganda for cultivation, more allotments for small holdings, and even gardens; Inducements to the unemployed to join the land workers, tho number of whom have dropped by 45,000 ; Five years’ Government loans to enable them , to increase their holdings and improve their stock; 'Hie construction ot huge granaries and cold storage depots for resell cs of corn, flour and meat; Erection of factories in conjunction with the marketing boards for the manufacture of cheese, condensed milk and butter.

defence of common interests NO CONFERENCE AT PRESENT. LONDON, Marclf 5. In the House of Commons Lieuten-ant-Commander R. T. Bower (Conservative) asked whether the Government would convene a conference of Dominions and Indian representatives, including the Princes, with a view to contributing, more to the defence of common interests. Mr Baldwin replied that the fullest touch was being maintained with the Dominions on all major questions of imperial defence. He did not consider the suggestion could be usefully adopted at present. Mr W. R. D. Perkins (Conservative) asked whether’ the Government would encourage the establishment of aircraft. and engine factories throughout the Empire. The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Air (Sir Philip Sassoon) said that,the Government was consider“sourcesof supply.” VIEWS OF MR SAVAGE. FAVOURABLE TO A CONFERENCE (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, March 6. The conviction that at the present critical juncture there should be a round-table conference of representatives of various parts of the British Commonwealth of Nations to discuss and determine some united course of action both in the economic and the military sense for the future was expressed by the Prime Minister (the Hon. M. J. Savage) in an interview. <! lt should not only be concerned with matters of defence, but it should lay down a general policy of development,” be said. “At the present time we do not know enough about wliai Britain is doing, and Britain does not know enough about what we are doing. That also applies to other parts of the Empire. For instance, we do no/ know

what they are doing in Australia to any great extent. “1 notice there is a possibility, according to a newspaper report, of British Ministers visiting the 'Dominions. If they do come, and come only to express their own ideas about things which may be capsized when they ge back, we won’t get very far,” he said. “They should have some authority behind them and some ideas.” Mr Savage said that, as he had stated once before, the first line of defence should, be population. That did nomean sending people abroad to struggle for themselves, but it meant a defined policy. When representatives of the British Empire met they should begin at the beginning, and the beginning meant the filling in of empty spaces, not with struggling wage-earners, but with people using the land and developing industries.