BRITAIN ARMING

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 96, 20 October 1937, Page 11

BRITAIN ARMING

MORE CONFIDENCE

A FIRM HAND IN EUROPE

Greatly-increased public confidence in England, following the rapid re-arm-ing programme now in progress, was commented upon by Sir James SteelMaitland, of Wellington, chairman and managing director of Isteg Steel Products (N.Z.), Limited, who has returned to New Zealand" after a business trip to Australia, England, and Canada, states an Auckland paper. "I fancy that British armaments as a whole are very much up to schedule,'.' • Sir 'James said. "We are able to take - a fairly firm hand in European politics • compared with 18 months ago, when we could do nothing more than speak. A much firmer line is now being taken. "When I left London the likelihood of a European war was not very ; great," he continued. In England the three services, Navy, Army, and Air Force, were all being strengthened. Factories were hard at work building for the' Navy and the Air Force, and an effort was being made to make service in the Army much more attractive ; than it bad been in the past. The . newly-appointed Secretary of State for War, Mr. L. Hore-Belisha, had been instrumental ■in . this .important step. "Things were in an appalling state 18 months ago," Sir James added. "There is greater security now because the country has the armaments to secure herself." Discussing the steel shortage, Sir James said that the position in New Zealand was worse than that in England, where buyers had to wait about three months for delivery. Steel manufacturers, were doing their best,_but were Handicapped by a lack of billets, and some of them, were able to wort: only four days a week owing to shortage of materials.