ARMING FOR PEACE

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21904, 3 October 1936, Page 15

ARMING FOR PEACE

ministerial defence of BRITISH POLICY PREPARATIONS OF ■ FOREIGN ' POWERS NOTED Uramsa omcui-wmiusss.) , <Received October 2, 1.25 p.m.) RUGBY, October 1. The annual Conservative party Conference has opened at Margate. About 1300 delegates are attending. The spokesman for the Government on questions of policy was the First Lord of the Admiralty (Sir Samuel Ho’are), who made the opening speech on defence. He emphasised the gravity of the international situation and the urgent and persistent need of British rearmament. _Six months ago, he said, the National Government drew a picture of the vast armaments which had been accumulated by all the great countries of the world. Since then the position had become substantially worse, and'small countries/'had been forced to embark upon large schemes of rearmament. Referring to the position in Germany, Sir Samuel recalled that Germany had introduced conscription in March, 1935, and she had announced a peace time army establishment of 36 divisions, with a strength of 550,000 men, and an Air Force of outstanding magnitude. Germany was spending at the rate of £800,000,000 annually on militapr preparations. This was a formidable enough situation, but since March Germany had extended the term of military service to two years. French Measures France, where the two years’, term of service was introduced last year, and where the Air Force was already in the process of reorganisation under the Government of the Left, had decided on further expansion in military, naval and air material at a cost of £ 186,000,000.

In Soviet Russia, the recruiting age since March had been reduced, so that there had been an increase in the vast numbers of effectives apd a great expansion of the Air Force,

In Japan the proportion of the public budget devoted 'to the Army and Navy had reached the striking figure of 46 per cent.

Even in,the United States the expenditure upon armaments was steadily rising. No wise or patriotic citizen could ignore those figures. No wise or patriotic citizen could shut his eyes to the lessons they had to teach. He launched no attacks upon any country in the world,’ but facts and figures stood out beyond fear’ of contradiction. The first lesson was the futility of one-sided disarmament. The second was the need of a greatly strengthened British Empire as a stabilising force on the side of peace. The supposed weakness of the British Empire had been proved by bitter experience to be a disturbing factor in the field of international politics. “No Alternative” “Faced with this situation, we have ho alternative but to carry .through with the least possible delay our programme of rearmament,” the First Lord. “Much of this programme is absolute and not relative. It is intended to safeguard the British Commonwealth of Nations. The building of our Fleet and tne expansion of our Air Force are absolutely essential, and the reequipment and strengthening of the Army are no less necessary for the duties it has to perform. We could on no account agree to any disarmament proposals that would stereotype our relative weakness. Our programme was and must be flexible, not rigid or dynamic and not static.” Sir Samuel Hoare recalled the statements of the Prime Minister (Mr Stanley Baldwin) and the Foreign Secretary (Mr R. A. Eden) about mandates, and he went on to say that the Government was as fully sure as anyone of the difficulties and objections to the transfer of mandates. It stood by Mr Eden’s statement that the transfer of any mandated territory would inevitably raise grave difficulties., The Government hoped that, with so many international problems still unsolved, there would in no quarters be any desire to introduce further causes of serious difficulties between the nations. CONSERVATIVE VIEW ON MANDATES DISCUSSIONS WITH GERMANY OPPOSED (Received October 2, 5.5 p.m.) LONDON, October 1. The Conservative Conference at Margate enthusiastically adc”M.; a resolution urging the Government to reaffirm the Home Secretary s earlier intimation to Germany that the mandates question could not be discussed. :