A NEW SPIRIT

Evening Star, Issue 23113, 12 November 1938, Page 13

A NEW SPIRIT

DOMINIONS AND DEFENCE PULLING THEIR WEIGHT A casual item of news was cabled recently from the Union of South Afria, and John Croftou comments on it in the London ‘ Daily Mail.’ It discloses the fact that the first rifle bullets ever to be manufactured by the Government of the Union are now ready by South African soldiers, he says;' and continues—ammunition, until, now, has always been imported into South Africa. This may strike the casual reader as news only of curiosity value. To others it is significant—perhaps even symbolical. Once upon a time, outside observers used to look at Manchester to-day to test the temper of the rest of Britain to-morrow. Distances shorten; if you wish to form a true picture of the temper of the British peoples in 1938 yon must now read the news coming from the dominions. lake Rome’s last foreign legions—the outposts of its Empire—the dominions have clung as long as they can to the ideal of a disarmed world. The incident of the South African bullets, and the Union’s new £70,000 arsenal, is a fragment in a pattern being swiftly woven by the Empire. CANADA’S DEFENCE. Let us circle the map with the cable files ol the past few weeks upon the desk.

Canada is the oldest and the largest of the self-governing members of the Imperial family. The fact that the United Kingdom is about to pay for the manufacture of-bombers in the dominions has been important news within the past week. _ That these bombers may fly to Britain under their own power has beefi much discussed. The decision to build factories in the dominion has been widely applauded, both by the aircraft manufacturers and the patriotic public. But what was Canada doing to defend herself before the Imperial authorities stepped in with contracts? The answer was; Very little. To-day the answer is: A great deal more. For the past 15 years the Conservative Party in Canada has been proclaiming the fact that the dominion has been completely unable to defend itself. There were suggestions that it was merely sheltering behind the Monroe Doctrine, whereby the United States pledged to ally itself \vith an American nation attacked by an invader. President Roosevelt reaffirmed this in his speech at the opening of the Thousand Isles Bridge. ' The President was then standing upon the soil of a dominion with a coastline of some 4,000 miles, and an area considerably larger than Europe.’ This nation of Canada has had until recently three infantry regiments, four destroyers, and one minesweeper to defend itself upon land and sea, with 160 aircraft of mixed designs to serve its Atlantic and Pacific coasts. The mood has changed. More than 40.000 militiamen went under canvas this summer in the dominion, a voluntary service; while the dominion’s rulers were giving orders for 7,000 Breir light machine-gun^.