GAINING MOMENTUM

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 70, 16 December 1937, Page 7

GAINING MOMENTUM

Rearmament In Britain

(British Official Wireless.)

Rugby, December 14

Sir Thomas Inskip, Minister for the Co-ordination of Defence, speaking in London on the rearmament programme, said that defence expenditure in 1913 was £77,000,000. In 1934 it was £113,000,000, and in 1937 it amounted to £278,000,000. In the period from 1938 to 1939, between £320.000,000 and £340,000,000 would be spent. The Government depended on the ingenuity and skill of the manufacturers for assistance. If it had not been for the highest state of willingness on the part of the manufacturers the Government could nbt, even if it had nationalised the industry, have done one-tenth of what had been possible. Rearmament had not reached anything like its full momentum, which it might attain in about 18 months. There were in various parts of the country new factories which as yet were only in the early stages of preparation and at which hundreds of thousands of men and possibly women would be em- • ployed. I The industrial strength of the coun- , try was. greater to-day. By means of j the rearmament programme the coun- ■ try had trained a new army of confi- ( dent workpeople. ; Sir Thomas said that he had unfail-, ing optimism regarding the British race and the capacity of the Government to guide its policy so that the great disaster of war should be avoid- . ed. ?