PLANS FOR SPENDING

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 87, 6 January 1940, Page 11

PLANS FOR SPENDING

More Warships; Coastal

Protection The United. States Government is to spend more on defence in the coming year than ever before in times ot pence. In his Budget message to Congress President Roosevelt estimated that expenditure on defence in the year to June, 1941, would be £93,000,000 more than in the current financial year. Recommending that this increase should be met by extra taxes. President Roosevelt said lie believed the United States wanted to strengthen their defences and were prepared to pay for them. The increase of one quarter in the regular Navy Budget is to be devoted largely to warship construction. Besides continuing the work on 120 ships, it is proposed to construct 24 more vessels. There will be two battleships, one aircraft carrier, two cruisers, eight destroyers, six submarines, three tenders and one minesweeper. The Army Budget includes expenditure for the protection’of the sea coast and the Panama Canal and for the construction of barracks at Hawaii. In his Budget statement the President said that the use of Government funds and. credit to promote private enterprise had greatly increased thenational income. The national income had increased by no less than 69 per cent., the largest rise in a four-year period in the history of the United States. President Roosevelt ended his statement by saying that the credit of the Federal Government never stood higher. —By radio.

President Roosevelt’s message. to Congress is regarded, by the British Press as an outstanding contribution to world thought. Editorial comment given so far welcomes its long-sighted survey and appreciation of the importance to the United States of the fundamental issues at stake in the conflict between the forces of. order and the powers of tyranny.—Official Wireless.