GARRISONS IN "FAR EAST"

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 55, 2 September 1937, Page 8

GARRISONS IN "FAR EAST"

Considerable (borrowing for defence expenditure is 3 feature of the Commonwealth Budget introduced last Friday in the Federal House of Representatives by the Federal Treasurer, Mr. R. G. Casey. The total defence expenditure proposed is £3,500,000 in excess of last year's, and £2,500,000 of that excess is to be borrowed in London by the issue of Treasury bills by the Commonwealth Bank in London. These Treasury bills are to be to the amount of . £2,000,000 sterling, equivalent to 2,500,000 Australian pounds; and they will cover defence equipment that, in the Federal Government's opinion, can be better manufactured in Britain / than in Australia. Mr. Casey stated:

It was considered inadvisable at the present time to take this loan money from the Australian market. It was proposed, in the first place, to raise £2,000,000 sterling (the equivalent of £2,500,000 in Australian currency) on Commonwealth Treasury bills from the Commonwealth Bank in London, and at an appropriate time to fund these short-term securities from the proceeds o£ a public loan.". . . These commitments would thus be met without necessity for encroaching on the existing body of London funds, which the Commonwealth was in course of building up as rapidly as possible.

"So you are starting to borrow overseas again," was the comment of the Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Curtin, from the Labour benches. While admitting that his proposals involve a largely increased defence vote, Mr, Casey significantly stated that the Commonwealth Government could not attempt to spread it over a longer period than one financial year, "because all the Government's proposals for increased defence expenditure were essential";- also "time was the essence of the contract." Besides reporting these Budget proposals, Australian newspapers feature reports published in the Press in Japan and Germany that the British Admiralty will build up a Pacific battle squadron based on Singapore and consisting of five battleships of the Queen Elizabeth class, "as soon as these have been modernised." Mr. H. C. Bywater is quoted as stating:

Unofficial naval opinion in Britain strongly favours augmenting our forces in the Pacific, on the ground that Britain's comparative naval weakness in those waters is one of the root causes of the present situation.

In a weekly journal published in London, "Great Britain and the Far East," Major G. H. Reade writes:

What many.soldiers would like to see would be Australian and New Zealand troops helping to garrison stations in the Far East that have a direct bearing on their safety. China is one; Singapore is another. Then, indeed, Empire interests would bo more closely inter-related than ever.

Major Reade thinks that the Mediterranean situation is too unsettled to permit China garrisons to be reinforced from British forces in the Mediterranean. The combination of widespread fighting in China, with perils in the Mediterranean, is regarded as providing a. new problem demanding new Empire plans.