GERMAN ARMS PROGRAMME

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21465, 6 May 1935, Page 11

GERMAN ARMS PROGRAMME

+ Anxiety in Britain |NO POSSIBLE ATTACKERS ! SEEN | i (BRITISH OFFICIAL -WIBELESS.) (Received May 5, 5.5 p.m.) RUGBY, May 4. Profound distrust of Germany's policy and intentions was voiced by Mr Winston Churchill and Sir Austen Chamberlain (Conservatives) during the foreign affairs debate in the House of Commons. The method of Germany, Mr Churchill- declared was to acquire mastery in the air and under that to develop her land and sea forces. Her design was being completed rapidly. The remedy for this was that I Great Britain must act with France land Italy and any country, great or small, to preserve peace under the League of Nations, meanwhile repairing the deficiencies in her defences with increased vigour. Sir Austen Chamberlain shared Mr Churchill's anxieties. He considered the situation was more dangerous than at any time since the war and he urged a strengthening of the defence services on a scale equivalent to the peril. Was Germany, he asked, willing for an agreement or did she intend to present herself to Europe as a nation so strong that all others would be at her mercy? Before the war she forgot her own encirclement. Was she going to do the same thing again? Lord Cranborne (Conservative) closely analysed the German plea that her armaments programme was dictated by the needs of self-defence, j Who, he asked, was going to attack Germany? t : If France had not attacked her in the last 15 years, when the French 1 strength was so much greater, she would not change her mind now. That Germany should be attacked by the little States around her or by Poland, was inconceivable. j There remained only Russia, but J Russia was engaged on a great ex-; perimcnt that required many years | to complete and could only be pur-; sued in peace. j Russia, said Lord Cranborne, had j no incentive to war and the German idea of a military Russian peril! was a myth which he did not think ] the German General Staff really believed in. Germany's neighbours feared her intentions. If these were, in fact, innocent, Germany could easily give proof by returning to the League and signing an armaments limitation agreement. Such action would give immense relief to Europe. There j seemed to be forces in Europe defin- ] itely making for war which would j be deterred only by the realisation ( that a policy of force could not succeed. Sir John Simon (Foreign Secre-, tary) commended Lord Cranborne's speech. He too asked of whom Germany Could possibly be afraid, and concluded with an appeal to her to carry out her former promise to seek equality within the security system and to restore by deeds the sense of security she had so seriously pre-' judiced, if not shattered, by recent events.

FRANCO-RUSSIAN PACT CONDEMNED

DANGER TO PEACE SEEN (Received May 5, 10.7 p.m.) BERLIN, May 4.' The German newspapers unanimously condemn the pact between France and the Soviet as a military alliance against Germany, endangering peace. They also allege that France and the Soviet have reached subsidiary agreements enhancing the deadliness of the pact. These are said to include an arrangement by which the Russians are permitted to march through Rumania to assist France against Germany. A FIVE-YEAR TERM PARIS, May 3. The term of the pact between France and Russia is five years.

STATEMENT BY MR MCDONALD

FAVOURABLE REACTION IN GERMANY "MR MACDONALD RESUMES HOLD OF BRIDLE" BERLIN, May 3. The newspapers welcome the conciliatory parts of Mr Ramsay MacDonald's foreign policy speech, which, the "Boersen-Zeitung" says, "gives the impression that after a world-wide gallop through the newspaper columns he has resumed his hold of the bridle. "Germany's willingness to participate in a rapprochement exists today as it has always existed," the newspaper adds. "England knows the preliminary conditions and if she expresses willingness to negotiate with us we assume that England agrees to these conditions."

FRENCH COMMENT MAINLY FAVOURABLE

PARIS, May 4. The newspapers' brief comment on Mr Mac Donald's speech is mostly favourable, though "Le Jour" is disappointed. It says: "This eternal British mediation is going to give Herr Hitler another opportunity to flout the Versailles Treaty."