HIGHEST PEACE TIME AIMS EXPENDITURE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 236, 5 October 1936, Page 7

HIGHEST PEACE TIME AIMS EXPENDITURE.

BRITAIN'S PLANS. Comments on Chancellor's Speech. NOT WITHOUT CRITICS. British Official Wireless. (Received 1.30 p.m.) RUGBY, October 4. Editorial comment in Saturday morning papers was principally directed to the speech which the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Neville Chamberlain, delivered at the Conservative party conference. The conference was delighted with the assurance that the Prime Minister, Mr. Stanley Baldwin, himself had "every expectation that by the time Parliament reassembled he would be fully able to cope with the heavy tasks which would then lie before him."

Mr. Chamberlain said: "When I consider the disturbed conditions of the world and all restrictions which still hamper international' trade, I cannot but be astonished at the progress of our industry. Every month since January there has been an increase in employment at an average rate of nearly 90,000 a month.

"This improvement is not confined to particular areas. It covers almost every part of the country, and nearly all * important industries —even in depressed areas, the most obstinate and difficult part of the unemployment problem —are beginning to feel the effects of revival." He stated that wage increases recorded in 1930 represented another £18,000,000 a year in the pockets of wage earners. Importance of Rearmament. Press comments shows that papers attach the greatest importance to the passages in the Chancellor's speech relating to rearmament. The Chancellor told his audience the reasons with which he, as Minister responsible for national finances, had reached the conviction that the "state of the world rendered it essential to embark on the largest programme of expenditure on defence that the country had ever undertaken in time of peace. "When the programme is completed we shall once more have a Navy adequate to protect our vital lines of communication. "We shall have an Army trifling in numbers beside the vast conscript armies of the Continent but equipped with the most modern weapons and mechanical devices that science can give us.

"We shall have an Air Force which, in speed, range and power of machines, and in quality of its personnel, will be second to none. I regard our Air Force, when fully developed, as the most formidable deterrent to war that could be devised. I support its establishment with the greater conviction and enthusiasm because every one knows it will never be used to make unprovoked attack on any other country."

The "Daily Telegraph" comments on Mr. Chamberlain's concluding appeal for greater attention to physical education, which is examined by it, and by the "Daily Mail," which considers this one of the most anxious problems of the times. Newspaper Critics. The Chancellor's speech is not without its critics in the Press. The "Daily Express" finds Mr. Chamberlain's drum somewhat mii(lled and his rearmament plans too distant. Mr. Chamberlain said it was futile and dangerous to attempt to distinguish between armaments necessary to Britain's own defence and what was required for the fulfilment of her international obligations. The "Manchester Guardian" finds in this statement reason for despair, and is forced to believe that tliis Go\einment still cannot understand even what is meant by the wisdom of collective security. Tlicy talk of defence and collective security as though tliey were two different things. The "Daily Herald," from a similar angle, says: '"Once again we find private confidcnce in national competitive armaments as in some way a guarantee of peace and security. One would think it impossible tlmt such belief could survive August, 1014, but here it is again, vigorous and dominant as evei with nothing changed except where then it 4 was the Navy which was to secure peace, it is now the Air 1" orce of terrific striking power." The resolution on defence armaments tabled by the national executive of tjie Labour partv for discussion at Edinburgh, adds that the conference declares a continuance of vested interests in the private manufacture of arms to be a grave contributory danger to peace of the world.