BRITAIN WILL NOT BE CAUGHT UNPREPARED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 49, 27 February 1937, Page 9

BRITAIN WILL NOT BE CAUGHT UNPREPARED.

IF WAR BREAKS OUT. Extensive Organisation of The Country. DEFENCE LOANS BILL PASSED. nrit':sh Official WireWs. (Received 12 imoii.) Rl'fißY. February 2<i. j In winding up the debate on the I ! second reading of the Defence Loans I Bill, Sir John Simon, Home Seere- j tary, referred to progress of the organisation for food supplies and air defence. Plan* bad been made for rationing, fond storage and distribution in ports and diversion of shipping. Port emergency committees had been established.' including civilian experts, and there was a careful interlocking of all these arrangements right up to the Committee of Imperial Defence. Referring to the Air Raids Precautions Committee, lie said there had been appalling development of the radius of action and the bombing load of aircraft. Precautions were directed against high explosive, gas and incendiary bombs. Incendiary bombs were the worst of the trinity in devilishness. Local organisations were being built up for fire fighting, decontamination, warnings of gas, detection, first aid rescue work, clearance of debris and emergency communications. 100,000 Gas Masks a Day. Sir John Simon disclosed the fact that the output of gas masks now totalled 100,000 a day. Britain was the only country in the world which was making this valuable provision for the safety of the civil population.

In answering Mr. Lees-Smith's suggestion that a civil planning committee should lie established, Sir John said tliere existed actually a vast General Staff mostly comprised of civilians, for the defence of the home front. For the Labour party Mr. H. 15. LeesSmith (Keighley. Yorkshire) earlier in the debate said it refused to be reassured by the Chancellor or by Mr. Keynes, the eminent economist, that Britain could raise the necessary money without straining financial resources. He contended that the Ciovcrnment's borrowing policy should lie reserved for a time when expenditure on armaments fell off and a slump was threatened, in order to arrest the oncoming depression. Mr. Lees-Smith also expressed dissatisfaction with the degree, of planning and co-ordination disclosed in the speeches of the Minister for the Coordination of Defence. Sir Thomas Inskip. Out of 17 Cabinet Ministers ill the House no less than 13 had had to answer questions concerning the preparations in the event of war. Tliere was no evidence that Sir Thomas was co-ordinating those 13 colleagues. The member suggested tlie appointment of a civil planning committee to work along parallel lines with the Committee of Imperial Defence on the aspects of the defence problem which, he asserted, obviously were being neglected. Sir Robert Home (Con.. Hillhead. I (Jlasjrow), speaking later in the debate, expressed the opinion that the country could take £400,000,000 of borrowing in its stride. The bill was read a second time by 307 votes to 132.

BRITAIN'S ESTIMATES.

Figures for Coming Financial

Year Issued.

INCREASES GENERAL. British Official \Virrlr>s.s. JiUOBY. February 26. The civil estimates and the estimates for the revenue departments, including pensions, education, insurance, and other grants and Exchequer contributions to local revenues, have been issued for the coming financial year. The totaj estimate is £404.278,20/5. compared with the net estimate last year of £461,604.773. The principal totals, those for last year being given in parentheses, are: Foreign Office, £130,056 (£170.746) ; Post Office, £72.328,000 ( £82,402.300) ; Unemployed Assistance Board, £51,260,000 (£47,000,000) ; old age pensions. £45,310.000 (£44.321,000); Board of Education, £40,361.050 (£48,065,726); Ministry of Pensions, £40,300,000 (£41.400.000); Exchequer contributions to local revenues in England and Wales, £47.502.000 (£30,400.047), and in Scotland. £6.800.000 (£5.600.480); Ministry of Labour, £23,838,000 (£21,628,150). The road fund in previous years was financed by issues from the consolidated fund. This policy has been classified in the present estimates and £15.500,000 from the Exchequer is set aside for roads. The Exchequer provision for widows, orphans and old age contributory pensions is estimated at £16,000.000, compared with £10,000,000. The estimates under the headings of Police. £12,446,188, Inland Revenue, £7.023,000, and Customs Excise, £5,973,100, show little change, but the Home Office estimate, which was £1,876,259 last year, is £5,776,957 for 1937-38.