HIGHLIGHTS from THE CABLES

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 9, 11 January 1940, Page 7

HIGHLIGHTS from THE CABLES

U.S. HUSTLES WITH NAVAL PROGRAMME.

TN the defence expansion of the United States the most spectacular plans are those for the Navy. To-day it is announced that Congress is to be asked to approve an increase of 29,000 in the personnel of the Navy, to raise the total to 145,000. There are obvious reasons why America should bestir herself. In a heavily armed world she can no longer rest on the Munroe Doctrine and the protection of vast oceans. With coastlines of thousands of miles on both the Atlantic and the Pacific,.and great cities like New York, Washington, Boston, Philadelphia, and San Francisco within range of sea attack, America must have a navy strong enough to meet and break any threat before it reaches the coastal waters.

For America, as for Britain and the British Dominions, the Navy is the first great line of defence, and when America's responsibilities in the Pacific, in the Orient and in Alaska are con-

" WHISKERS, LONDON," ON THE JOB.

THE broadcast talk by Professor J. L. Brierley on the legal aspects of the British blockade of German exports draws attention to the exceedingly important work of the Ministry of Economic Warfare. Controlled by a 43-Vear-old M.P. and merchant banker, Mr. Ronald Hibbert Cross, this Department is responsible for tracing the source, course and destination of every conceivable product of commerce. With its headquarters in the London School of Economics, it has nearly 200 experts— bankers, economists, brokers, trader?, linguists, industrialists and shippers— and some 500 secretaries and office boys.

PRICES AND WAGES IN WAR TIME.

IK" a warning against the consequences of allowing the "vicious circle of rising prices and wages" to run its course in war time, the Prime Minister of Britain has said that to allow prices and wages' to chase one another on an ever-ascending scale would benefit no one. The difficulties of maintaining economic balance are great in peace time, but they are tremendously aggravated in war. Price increases, however, cannot be ignored when considering wages in a time like the present. It would be just as futile to attempt to tie wages hard and fast to pre-war standards as it would be to absorb progressive price rises into wages in an effort to protect the working classes against the economic

sidered the commitments are second onJ\ to those of the British Commonwealth. It is realised that America cannot rely on only one navy—she must have two. one on each coast. And there is talk of building great super-battleships of over 50,000 tonnage. It has been said that if ever enemy warships got within a range of 1000 miles of America the country would have to call on its God as well as on its Navy, and this view appears to be behind the present policy. The great U.S. naval base in the Pacific, at Pearl Harbour, Hawaii, is more than 2000 miles from San Francisco, and other islands further out in the Pacific are being fortified and formed into naval bases to make a defence screen shape.! like a fan. With its tremendous re sources the United States is capable of outbuilding any other Power on the sei*. with the possible exception of the Britisi Empire, and the navies of the two gresv English-speaking democracies should b< able to form an immensely powerful bul wark against aggression.

They form the greatest economic intel ligence system in the world and cost the Treasury about £100,000 a year. Inappropriately, the Ministry's tele graphic address is "Whiskers, Txmdon." The right-hand man to Mr. Cross is Sir Frederick William Leith-Ross, chief economic adviser to the Government Each day Mr. Cross meets his expertin conference, and they examine the contraband lists which have reached them by teleprinter from control bases off Ramsgate, Weymouth and Kirkwall, and by rfedio from Gibraltar, Malta and Haifa. The quantity of cargo stopped has run up to more than 40,000 tons in one week.

effects of war conditions. When Govern stents are dipping into the economic pool to meet the tremendous demands of war there is less for everyone to share, and the sacrifices involved cannot be escaped. Mr. Chamberlain ha* referred to the unparalleled demands on the wealthy, and has rightly indicated that financial sacrifices must be shared according, to means throughout the social scale. As one of Britain's safeguards against the inflationary effects of war finance, national savings are being mobilised at the rate of a million a day. If this money were left in the hands of tinpeople to be spent in the normal wa\ the upward pressure on prices would !v greatly increased.