HOSTAGES TO FORTUNE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 257, 27 September 1935, Page 9

HOSTAGES TO FORTUNE

MR CHURCHILL’S COMMENT, CANNOT UNDERSTAND DUCE. ALARM ABOUT GERMANY. (United Press Association.—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) Received September 27, 8.35 a.m. LONDON, Sept. 26. Mr Winston Churchill, addressing the City Carlton Club, said: 1 am surprised that so great a man as Signor Mussolini is willing, and even eager, to put Italy in such an uncomfortable military and financial position. Casting the flower of Italian manhood on a barren shore at the end of a drainpipe like the Suez Canal is to give hostages to fortune in a manner unparalleled in history. 1 cannot understand his embarking on the campaign against the opinion of the whole world in a region which the conquerors of the past four thousand years have not thought it worth while to subdue. The Italians ought to be grateful to Britain for endeavouring to keep them out of the trap. Mr Churchill added that the rearmament of Germany was the greatest and grimmest fact in the world today. Herr Hitler was spending at least six times as much on arms as Britain. Mr Churchill said: The vultures are circling, hoping to devour the Empire’s carcase, but we are going to disappoint them, despite the lamentable doctrine that, as Britain possesses many colonies, we should slice up the Empire and provide equal rations to newcomers. lam surprised that no member of Cabinet has stamped out such squalid heresy, as once others thought we were prepared to redistribute His Majesty’s Dominions there would be such an ugly rush that our inheritance would be torn to pieces. We would be left starving with the population of a first-class Power on a little island.

DISCUSSION AROUSED. THE REAL DANGER. ATT ENT lON ~ON GERMANY. Received September 27, 10.55 a.m. LONDON, Sept. 26. The Sun-Herald Service says that Mr Churchill’s speech has aroused considerable discussion, especially his full agreement with the Government and the advocacy of large and rapid rearmament. It is generally believed that Mr Churchill wants to join the Cabinet, particularly as Defence Minister, which portfolio the Government is believed to have been considering. This would enable Mr Churchill to direct the proposed rearmament programme, including naval building involving a national loan, probably exceeding £150,000,000. A feature of Mr Churchill’s speech was that Germany, not Italy, was the Empire’s real danger. He described Germany as rearming on a gigantic scale with unexampled speed. The whole power of Nazidom was concentrated night and day on warlike preparations in the air, on land, and on sea. German arsenals, private factories, and the main part of German industry were absorbed in building the most formidable armaments devisable by science.