Many Millions for Armaments

Manawatu Times, Volume 62, Issue 298, 16 December 1937, Page 6

Many Millions for Armaments

BRITISH INCREASING ACTIVITY United Press Association—By Electric Telegra p n. —Copyr leh t. RUGBY, Dec. 14. Lord luskip, Minister for the Coordination of Defence, speaking In London on the re-armament programme, said that defence expenditure in 1913 was £77,000,000. In 1934 it was £113,000,000, and in 1937 it amounted to £278,000,000. In the period from 1938 to 1939 between £320,000,000 and £340,000,000 would be spent. The Government depended on the ingenuity and skill <•/ the manufacturers for assistance. If it had not been for the highest state of willingness on the part of the manufacturers the Government could not, even if it had naionalised the industry, done one-tenth of what had been possible. Rearmament had not reached anything like its full momentum, which it might attain in about IS months. There were in various parts of the country new factories which as yet were only in the early stages of preparation and at which hundreds of thousands of men and possibly women would bo employed. The industrial strength of the country was greater to-day. By means of the re-armament programme the country had trained a new army of confident workpeople. Lord Inskip said that he had unfailing optimism regarding the British race and the capacity of the Government to guide its policy so that the great disaster of war should be avoided.