PRE-WAR LEVEL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 65, 18 March 1930, Page 7

PRE-WAR LEVEL.

naval estimates. Britain's Gesture of Sincerity on Disarmament. BIG CUTS MADE. (British Official Wireless.) (Received 12.80 p.m.) RUGBY, March 17. Introducing the Navy Estimates in the House of Commons Mr. A. V. Alexander, First Lord of the Admiralty said that they amounted to £51,739,000 as against £55,865,000 last' year, showing ' a reduction of £412*6,000. The Estimates were within £190,000 of the figure submitted for 1914, which_ were the last pre-war Estimates, but in order to get a true comparison with 1914 allowance must be made.for the higher costs and prices to-day. Calculated on pre-war rates, the provisions covered by the present Estimates should not' have cost more than £31,000,000, or a reduction of 39 per cent.' Provision this year, however, covered a much larger proportion of noneffective charges than in,1914. To-dav the non-effective charges amounted to £8,500,000, compared with £3 000,000 in 1914. So, if one compared the'actiial effective services; of the Navy, the ■ present net Estimates weie £43.000,000, compared with £48,500,000 in 1914. Reducing the present Estimates to the nre-war values, there was? a reduction of no less than 50 per cent. "I beg the House to remember," said Mr. Alexander, "that no other naval Power in the world has voluntarily made a reduction compared with pre-war." Building. Reduced. With regard to the. reduction in shipbuilding Mr. Alexander said:' "It is with cr eat satisfaction that the Government have found in the general trend of world affairs and in the general outlook f« peace, justification for proceeding still further along the road, already to some extent marked out by the last Government, of slowing down the rates of our naval construction - and giving proof of our sincerity in the cause of all-round reductions in armaments. "The reductions we have made in the jast two annual programmes ihave been made in the same spirit as actuated the late Government in the reductions they themselves made in ecrtain .of their annual programmes, but L-would say they have been made greater courage and Stronger determination for the end in view, and have been piade accordingly very much more drastic. ; "We are convinced that the provision we are now making is adequate. Our replacement programme must be related not to the present strength but to future needs. What those needs will be cannot be accurately forecast until the results of the London Naval Conference have bten ascertained and duly collated." l\'o' provision was made for' a construction programme for 193(|, and the Government were holding Over any decision as to What this should be. Not only so, but in respect of the 1931 programme it had been thought best, in View of the proposals! which the British delegation had made at the 1 conference for the total abolition of the submarine, to suspend for the present the submarine part of that programme. >■- The House need not view with alarm the prospect of a supplementary Estimate to meet future needs. In this respect the provision made in 1929 for new construction of submarines amounted to £80,000, and no greater figure than that would be asked in respect ol 1930 unless he had to ask for provision for the three submarines -p.ovisionally included in the 1929 programme. Should this necessity unfortunately arise, and he would not delude the House into thinking the contingency might be ignored, the supplementary grant might have to he increased to a more material size, but it would still represent a small fraction of the reduction of Estimates as a whole, and it would still mean that the ultimate saving on the 1929 construction programme would be no less than £6,500,000. , Slow-Down at Singapore. _ Mr. Alexander added that a very considerable slowing down of work on the Singapore Base had been found possible without in any way prejudicing _ the ultimate decision. The final decision on the future development of the base Would be sought as soon as possible after the Naval' Conference, but would not be taken until after consultation with tho overseas Governments affected. Mr. Winston Churchill said the Conservatives did not assent to the present proposals and estimates of the Government. He asked why the reduction in cruiser strength was announced befjpre the conference began instead of becoming part of the general process of disarma* rnent. ' ■ "There is grave danger," said Mr. Churchill, "that the conference may become a process, not of general naval disarmament,; but of disarming Great Britain, while other Powers become actually stronger." Mr. Churchill pointed out that before the war, we had 146,000 seamen and marines, and after tho-war 99,000, and we were now to reduce the number to 94,000. During the same period the United States, the next strongest naval Power, had increased its personnel from 67,000 in 1914 to 114,000 in the present year. In face of such figures what became of the of parity ? Commander Kenworthy (Lab., Hull) said that if unable to arrange a general five-year building holiday, Britain alone should declare a . cessation. She could do this with perfect safety and should then postpone the conference sine die and part friends with the Powers repre-. sented. Replying to Mr. Churchill's criticism of the Government's action, in reducing the naval construction programme to less than would maintain the minimum standard the Government itself had proclaimed, Commander Kenworthy said that ho considered the Naval Conference was going to be a terrible failure. Tlie forces against the Government had been too great. Considerable building programmes were bound to be embarked upon in the next few years. Major' A. West-Russell (Con., Tynemouth) moved an amendment "That this House, having regard to the dependence of the Empire upon sea routes, is of the opinion that the maintenance of an adequate naval forces establishment and a steady building and replacement programme are of vital importance." _He argued that the Government had no right to risk the defence of the trade routes of the Empire in order to make a gesture before going to a conference, the results of which rr*-* not possibly be foreseen.