"WE CANNOT GIVE IN."

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 633, 10 January 1914, Page 2

"WE CANNOT GIVE IN."

CHANCELLOR ON THE RACE IN ARMAMENTS.

To the bankera and merchants of the City of London, the Chancellor of the Exchequer addrsseed himself on the subject of armaments. By doctor's orders the Governor of the Bank of England was unable to be present, but he sent a message to say that while the present financial situation is anxious he sees no reason for alarm. —Mr Lloyd George said we had seen a very great trade boom—the greatest, probably, that the country had ever seen, and it was not over by any means. Referring to the general demand for a reduction in taxation, he said that until something was done to arrest the "mad rush of increasing armaments," not in any one country, but in all countries.it was futile to expect any Chancellor of the Exchequer could pee the smallest prospect of diminishing taxation. "It is not easy to distribute the blame for the competition in armaments," said the Cnancellor. "It is a barren, futile inquiry to ask who iB responsible. There is only one inquiry that will lead to any result. How are you going to stop it? Competition goes on between Power and Power and between one group of Powers and another, and I should not be doing my duty as Chancellor of tne Exchequer if I did nut eay that it was going on at an increasing momentum every year. Two years ago the financial interests of the Continent, I believe, stopped a war. It was full of hope, and I believe it is only these great financial interests that will be able ,to effectively intervene in order to arrest thi3 terrible war. It is when they begin to realise that it is a menace to their vital interests that they will be able to succeed. Finance is international. If there is trouble in one country the finance of the next i> affected. There is a war in the East and the West bleeds. Banks fall in the West and the East trembles.

No individual country can afford to disarm. We cannot give in. We cannot cease strengthening our own forces; we cannot even in the slightest degree decrease the immunity we have against invasion. The same thing applies to the Continent, because there is no country on the Continent which has not known what an invasion is in the last few years. M Lloyd George spoke with admiration of the vast development of national commerce. He argued that it was the demand for money by industrial concerns which bad caused financal stringency, and, therefore, a drop in the securities.