WARMLY APPROVED DEFENCE PROGRAMME

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 68, 17 February 1939, Page 7

WARMLY APPROVED

DEFENCE PROGRAMME

OPINIONS OF PRESS

ASSURING SECURITY. (United Press Association —By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) _ (Independent Cable Service.) Received February 17, 8.5 a.m. LONDON, Feb. 16. All sections of the Press warmly approve of the defence programme. The Daily Telegraph says that the cost is staggering, but the country is ready to bear whatever burden will assure national security. All it asks is to receive value for its money, and receive it quickly.

The News-Cchronicle says : “The defence programme will show that the dictators’ apparently pacific speeches have not pulled the wool over our

eyes.” » The Daily Mail says: “The barometer tells us that we are becoming stronger daily as the needle of expenditure moves steadily from danger to security.” The Daily Express says: “The new programme will make us so strong that no enemy dare attack us.” The Express adds that two battleships of the 1959 programme will be of 40,000 tons, with 16in. guns. FORTY-THREE SHIPS. ,

Four large cruisers and one aircraftcarrier will make a total of 43 ships in the 1939 programme. The new battleships will bring the total capital ships being constructed to nine. The Financial News says that with drastic economies and drastic taxation it might be posible to keep the defence borrowing between £265,000,000 and £295,000,000 in the coming year.