ARMAMENTS RACE

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22305, 20 January 1938, Page 9

ARMAMENTS RACE

INCREASED EXPENDITURE IN EUROPE

RISE OF EIGHTY PER CENT. IN FIVE YEARS uraon ova own coß»eapo*TD*rr.i LONDON. December 22. The increasing momentum of the arms race, which the League of Nations- Assembly last yedt described as "a race towards grave and unknown dangers.” is revealed in the “Armaments rear Book." just published b> uie League. This increased momentum is most strikingiv illustrated in the rise in world military expenditure since 1932 The figures given represent only what appears in the budgets of national defence departments (armies, air forces navies), and are based merely on the expenditure incurred for the organisation of armies on a peace fooling. According to the “Year Book” thesi figures can be summarised as follows: Million. Old Gold dollars. 1932 .. .. 4300 1933 ' .. •• 4500 1934 .. .. 5100 1935 .. .. 5600 1936 .. .. 5800 1937 .. 7100

This year’s total of 7100 million old gold dollars equals about £2,400,000,000 sterling. From approximate calculations based on official publications, military expenditure in 1913 can be estimated at about 2,500,000.000 gold dollars. Hence, worhj military expenditure in 1937 is almost three times as much as the amount spent annually in the period before the war. The rise can be ascribed to the increase in permanent establishments, which amount to-day tc about 8,5f10.000 men. as compared with 6.000,000 in 1913: and to the greatly enhanced cost of modern armaments, due to the policy of army motorisation and mechanisation now followed by the governments of nearly all countries. The “Year Book” gives the following Summary of the upward trend in naval onnage:— Thousands of Tons BuildBuilt. iur. Total. 1934 .. 5085 745 5830 1935 .. 5105 908 6013 1936 , 5168 994 6162

Between 1932 and 1937. the European countries increased their total military expenditure by 80 per cent. During the same period the expenditure of the extra-European countries ncreased by only 47 per cent.