DEFENCE EXPENDITURE

Evening Star, Issue 22572, 13 February 1937, Page 17

DEFENCE EXPENDITURE

BRITAIN'S REARMAMENT PROGRAMME NECESSARY TO SAFETY OF EMPIRE Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright LONDON, February 11. Mr Chamberlain’s defence loan announcement was made after the close of business, and did not affect prices on the Stock Exchange. The market is already dull and unlikely, in the opinion of ‘ The Times ’ City editor, to derive much encouragement from the statement. Conditions for raising a loan are hardly favourable at present. ‘The Times,’ in an editorial, says; “ The scale of British rearmament is wholly conditioned by the rearmament of others and the failure of nations • to agree upon stabilisation, which is. still earnestly sought by Britain.”

The ‘ Daily Mail’s ’ political correspondent says it is assumed that the rise in income tax will now be smaller than anticipated. Members of the House of Commons who are in close touch with the Government express the opinion that it will not exceed threepence. The ‘ Daily Telegraph’s ’ political correspondent says unofficial estimates place the defence expenditure for the next live years at £1,200,000,000. “ Let the countries throughout the world mark the determined effort we are making,” said Sir Samuel Hoare at Birmingham. “ Let them remember that when we put our bands to a great task wc are willing to make great sacrifices. Though we might be slow in starting we arc remarkable for the way wo have of eventually reaching the winning post. A great Empire that is also weak is a menace to stability and a temptation to an aggressor.” The Liberal members of the House of Commons will meet shortly to decide their attitude. In the meantime they express astonishment at the magnitude of the sum.

The executive of the Parliamentary Labour Party .met immediately after the announcement, and unanimously expressed the opinion that the plan should be opposed. Mr PetbickLawrence, a member of the executive and Financial Secretary to the Treasury in the last Labour Government, said after the meeting that it would lead to boom conditions in which there will be a vast. rake-off in the shape of a windfall of profits, followed almost certainly by a depression, the brunt of which would be borne by the workers in the shape of a reduced standard of life. GERMAN COMMENT (BERLIN, February 11. , Official circles find nothing to criticise in the news of the loan. The official spokesman said: “We take it now that Britain is making use of her rights as a matter of course. We shall remember this when we are criticised. OPINION IN ROME ROME, February 11. The astronomical figure of the loan, when converted into the lire, is taken as final proof that Britain is now at the head of the armaments race, FRANCE WELCOMES NEWS PARIS, February 11. Tie news is welcomed, but it is regretted' that such expenditure is necesiary. Britain and Franc© would have preferred a strong League and disarmament. GILT-EDGED MARKET RECOVERS LONDON, February 12. (Received February 13, at 10 a.m.) The jilt-edged market opened lower, but lata: recovered. Aramaraent shares are string as the result of the Chancellor’s statement. PROTECTING THE TAXPAYERS SIR SiMUEL HO ARE’S VIEWS. I ' (British Official Wireless.) 1 - RUGBY, February 12. (Recehcd February 13, at noon.) Sir Sahuel Hoare, in a speech at Birminghan on rearmament, said the defence pii>gramme must inevitably cost scores of billions. “We shall find the money as ,we have found) it in past emergencies, ” he said, “ and l we shall find it witely and fairly, holding the balance bejween all classes of the community artl between sums that can rightly be Regarded as capital expenditure and sims that must be found by annual taxation. While it is essential hat a gre(t part of the expenditure should be pud for in the annual Budget, it is rot reasonable that the deficiencies ofiinany years should be entirely met ly the taxpayer of the present year or* the years immediately before us. Ou[this account there is every justification for finding a substantial part of the expenditure from loans to bo repaid over a term of years. We do not like loan! of this kind, but in the present circumstances loans are inevitable. Wijely and carefully administered, I do lot believe they will shake our credit or'endafiger the supply of cheap money Bo essential to British industry. A 1 strong defence, sound finance, a connoted and united people and Empire ae the aims to which the Government's | mind is constantly fixed. 1

BILL TO BE PRESENTED WITHOUT DELAY FURTHER BRITISH PRESS COMMENT. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, February 12. (Received February 13, at noon.) A Bill seeking authorisation for the Treasury to raise capital or to use realised Budget surplus for defence expenditure will be presented to Parliament without delay. The necessary money resolution will come before the House of Commons o.n Wednesday, when there will ho full opportunity for debate. The newspapers point out that the figure, 3 per cent., while it may in part be a guide to probabilities, does not refer to the rate payable to investors, but to interna) Treasury arrangements. Commenting on the Government’s proposals ‘ The Times ’ says: There is no question of throwing the new Government loan of £400,000,000 upon the market, nor do signs go to show that such a loan is immediately imminent. Technically the announcement does little more than create the framework of a highly orthodox financial operation and to leave the details to be filled in later. It is most strongly to be hoped that this fresh evidence of British determination and capacity to carry through the defence programme will prove to be constructive in the highest sense of strengthening the efforts simultaneously pursued by the Government to call a halt all over the world to the disastrous policies of putting fists into mail and piling up expenditure pyramidically. The ‘Post’ says: “Borrowing for defence in time of peace is certainly rare, but so, happily, are the emergencies of the kind with which we are now confronted.” The ‘ Daily Telegraph ’ welcomes the announcement as an assurance that rearmament is being pushed forward with full energy, and says the system chosen is elastic. The ‘ Daily Herald ’ strongly opposes the Government proposals. It says the Joan will place a much greater part of the burden on the working man, for the loan will be inflationary, increasing the monetary demand for all goods and services. It regrets that money for defence is not to be raised by taxing the' rapidly mounting profits of industry. The ‘ Daily Mail ’ declares that the amount is inadequate, and says the Government should have stipulated for £1,000,000,000 at least. The ‘ Financial News ’ says there is nothing whatever 'in the Chancellor’s statement or in the White Raper containing the financial resolution which suggests that Government borrowing on a large scale is imminent, or to believe that the Government will require funds for the rearmament programme before the autumn. The ‘ News, Chronicle ’ criticises the proposals on the -ground that the loan will greatly complicate the task of the authorities in keeping expansion within bounds of reason.