THE LESSER POWERS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 118, 18 April 1934, Page 7

THE LESSER POWERS

EFFORT FOR ARMS REDUCTION. CONSIDERATION IN LONDON. SERVICE TO THE CAUSE. (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) (British Official Wireless.) Received April 18, 12.30 p.m. RUGBY, April 17. The memorandum on the work of the Disarmament Conference put forward by the five Powers—Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Spain and Switzerland —is under consideration in London. It is a-ecognised as an important contribution by the lesser Powers to the cause of disarmament. The insistence whicii is placed in the memorandum on reaffirmation of the vital necessity of concluding a convention which provides for a reduction of armaments and not merely for their limitation is regarded as timely, and accords to the proposals put forward by the British Government. Tlie Manchester Guardian says the memorandum of the lesser Power* makes a modest group of practical proposals which should, if anything can do so, help to save the Disarmament Conference from shipwreck. The paper adds: “The signatories are particularly well fitted, by their position, recent history and racial composition, to observe and argue without prejudice or passion. They have done so. These former neutral Powers have done a service to the Conference and Europe.” GERMANY’S REPLY. HIGHER ARMS’ ESTIMATES. EXPLANATION TO BRITAIN. (British Official Wireless.)RUGBY, April 17. The Note addressed by the German Foreign Minister to tlie British Ambassador in Berlin, in reply to the inquiry regarding the increases in German naval, military, and air estimates, was presented to the House of Commons by the Foreign Secretary, Sir John Simon, in reply to a question. The Note stated that, in regard to the estimates for the army of 635,600,000 reichsmarks, which represents an increase of 172,000,000 “the increased expenditure is necessary for preparations due to take place in the course of the Budget year for the conversion of the Reicliswehr into a shortservice army. The allocation of these sums in the Budget for this purpose arises from the state of negotiations ill regard to the disarmament question. “The expenditure for the naval Budget Ims been estimated at 236,000,000 reichsmarks. This increased expenditure of 50,000,000 is due to the increasing cost of the systematic renovation of long since obsolete units of the German fleet, the replacement of which, partly on the ground of security of the crews, can no longer be postponed. “The Budget of the Air Ministry cannot be regarded as an armament Budget. It consists of a Budget for air transport and a Budget for air protection. The estimated expenses for air transport amount to 160,000,000 reichsmarks, against the previous year’s 77,000,000. The increase is due ■to the replacement of obsolete aeroplane material of the private German air transport company Lufthansa which, as in other countries, receives Government subsidies to the expenses necessary for increased security in the air and for the installation of lighting and wireless direction-finding systems owing to winter operation and nightflying on long distance lines, and to the development of overseas air transport and of scientific investigation in the sphere of air transport generally.

“The estimates for air protection amount to 50,000,000 reichsmarks. In last year’s Budget only 1,300,000 reichsmarks were provided for this purpose, since the organisation of air protection ivas at that time only in its first stage. The newly-developed organisation is devoted to the protection of the civil population against air attack. Its activity consists of the erection of splinter and gasproof cellars, the training of squads for the rendering harmless of poisonous gases, the development of a fireextinguishing system, . training .of special squads for warnings, technical repairs and the rendering harmless of poisonous gases, and other similar measures.” FRANCE’S AIR PERIL. PARIS MOST VULNERABLE. LONDON, April 17. That France must awaken to her air peril is the subject of an article in “Armee Moderne,” with a preface by Marshal Petain. The article says that Paris is the most vulnerable capital in Europe, and has 154 inhabitants to the acre compared with London’s 60. It declares that Germany possesses 800 ’planes capable of immediate action, including 600 which can be used as bombers. They are sufficient to attack at a single blow Metz, Verdun, Nancy, Strasbourg, Mexieres, Amiens, Paris and Dijon, and even Bordeaux, Brest and towns similarly distant from Germany. The Dohyphenx and other passenger ’planes could be used for a secret°landing of Storm Troops to destroy railway junctions, bridges, factories and similar vital points. The newest air bombs, weighing two tons, consist of 70 per cent, of highexplosive, enabling a German air fleet to carry to any French town destructive power equivalent to a battleship’s twelve-inch guns firing continuously for eight hours.