IN IMMINENT DANGER

Evening Star, Issue 22573, 15 February 1937, Page 9

IN IMMINENT DANGER

PEOPLE OF GREAT BRITAIN APPEAL FOR TRAINED HEN Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright LONDON, February 12. Mr Duff Coper, Minister of War, speaking at Edinburgh said that the most optimistic people must recognise that there was every sign of an approaching catastrophe. The defence announcement must have brought home to tho people that they were living in imminent danger. Appealing for recruits, he added, “ What is the good of armaments if trained men are not behind them?” IMPROVED RESPONSE RECORD RECRUITING. RUGBY, February 12. Recruiting for the territorial army during January was another record, being the best for that month in any year since 1921*. The returns show that 2,993 recruits were obtained, as against 1,192 for January, 1936, an increase of 151 per cent., and 147 recruits more than for December. DEFENCE LOAN STOCK EXCHAiNGE INTEREST. RUGBY, February 12. The defence , loan announcement aroused considerable interest on the Stock Exchange, and at first some unsettlement. Later a more optimistic view was taken, and British funds, after being marked down one-eighth to three-quarters, showed a good recovery, with the war loan at 3£- per cent, quoted at £lO3 3s Bd, having touched £lO3, MORE BATTLESHIPS AND PLANES LONDON,' February 13. The ‘ Sunday Graphic ’ forecasts that, the Defence White Paper expected on February 16 will disclose that Britain is completing 150 warships of various types, including 11 super-dreadnoughts, in tho next five years, and deliveries totalling 3,000 aircraft containing secret improvements in 1938, and onwards, and reserves of ammunition and equipment for the Army costing £2,500,000 in the event of an emergency. GERMAN GOVERNMENT IMPRESSED LONDON, February 14. (Received February 15, at 1 p.m.) The * Observer’s ’ Berlin correspondent says the British plans for the loan of £400,000,000 have deeply impressed the Government, which is now convinced of British determination to rearm. Meanwhile, as the Germans have not been told the exact cost of German armaments, it is easy for the newspapers to affect astonishment at the Britisli outlay, with a view to impressing the German masses with the necessity to sacrifice for defence. HOUSE OF COMMONS DEBATE TO OPEN ON THURSDAY. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, February 13. (Received February 15, at noon.) It is now anticipated that the debate on defence, which will be raised in the House of Commons on the committee stage of the necessary financial resolution seeking authority to raise up to £400,000,000, will extend over two days next week. According to present plans the debate will open on Thursday, instead of Wednesday. A request by the Labour Party for a White Paper giving full details of the work in hand and in contemplation has been acceded to, and the document is already under preparation. WAVE OF PROSPERITY NOT DUE TO REARMAMENT. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, February 13. (Received February 15, at noon.) Speaking at London, Sir Thomas Inskip said the present prosperity in Britain was not due to rearmament work, but was a natural, sound, and genuine wave of prosperity, and that the weight of the rearmament programme had hardly begun to be felt by industry. Referring to house building, which continues to be particularly active, he said there was no bulwark more sure than that long line of men and women who owned their own homes and their own land. Britain’s Maginot Line was the homes that the people owned and would defend if necessary. Mr Hore-Belishn, speaking at Edinburgh, said that while at present defence was tho paramount consideration in Government expenditure, its effects in stimulating revival must not be exaggerated. The stimulus for that revival came from other causes. Defence expenditure, though placing a strain on certain trades, was small in relation to Britain’s normal factory output of about £2,000,000,000 annually. Every effort had been made to arrange for the fulfilment of the defence requirements without dislocating the normal development of industry. At the same time all that necessity required would be done, and with accelerated speed, to modernise and perfect the defences by sen, land, and air. The request that had to be made to Parliament to borrow up to £400,000,000 might well be a chastening reminder, wherever it might be appropriate, that Britain was ready to employ in the area of her responsibilities her man power, her materials, and—what had ever been the most powerful and irresistible of her weapons—her financial resources.