"RE-ARM OR GO UNDER”

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 12 April 1934, Page 9

"RE-ARM OR GO UNDER”

ALTERNATIVES FOR BRITAIN WORLD AT PARTING OF THE WAYS GRAVE INTERNATIONAL POSITION WARNING BY A REAR-ADMIRAL ‘‘The world is at the parting of the ways. Thu lessons of the Great War have not been learned. We must now re-arm and stand prepared or go under,” declared Rear-Admiral F. Burges Watson, D. 5.0., commander-in-chief of the New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy, to the New Plymouth Rotary Club (report:; the "Daily News”). "Not since the years just before 1914 has the general international situation been more unsettled or fraught with so many dangers. The British Empire did its very best to preach and practice co-opera-tion. Europe, has chosen the had old wav which leads to anarchy. Japan is reaching a dangerous state with a rapiTllv increasing population which she cannot, feed entirely from her own resources and has no outlet for them. She is like Germany in 1914.”

"The last year has been memorable and anvone with half an eye open must be feeling uneasy.” said Hoar-Admiral Watson, "(Since October last, a short six months ago, Japan has withdrawn from th ( . League of Nations end done what she wanted to do in Maiiehukiio in defiance ol the League. Germany has given notice of withdrawal and refuses lo have anything to do with the Disarmament Conference unless her claim to equably with other Emopcan nations is first admitted. She has likewise become aggressively national under Hitler’s Nazi regime. France and Italy con tin lie to arm and increase their naval armaments. There has been communist and syndicalist rioting in Spain. Austria has had a severe hut short civil war. In France there have been great governmental scandals and severe rioting in Paris and the people arc restive and thoroughly tired of what they call their ‘ R.iipu Ul ii j no des Gama ratios. 1 America, has had and still has troubles with its recovery programme and labour unrest. “INVASION” BY JAPAN “Li the .East Japan with cheap but most industrious labour has invaded every, market and upset all of our own American and European trade. She Jmrscll is reaching a dangerous slate with a rapidly increasing population which she cannot feed entirely from her own resources ajul for which slm has no outlet. She is like Germany was in 1914. Rapidly expanding commercially and invading all markets, she is unlike Germany in this that when her citizens desire In emigrate there are not so many places for them to go, for many possible outlets are barred to them.. I hev have a strong military caste ol very high ideals of duty and patriotism at. the head of affairs. They are a clean living, hard-working, sober anil patriotic people. "Do not forgot that in the last 30 years the Japanese have fought three wars and always have been victorious, l/irst against China in order to control Korea, fhen against Russia because she threatened Korea. Port Arthur became

theirs and tlto economic capture of Manchuria resulted. Then came the Great War, in which they ousted Germany from Tsing-tau and watched Europe impoverish itself. Is it a wonder that J’an-Asianism with the ideal of Japan as leader, throwing European trade and influence out of China, and becoming the leader of all Asiatic peoples against Europe, is becoming more than a dream? “After the war Great Britain gave the world a lead. It joined the League ol Nations and did its very best to breathe the breath of life into it. it has preached and practised disarmament, and worked for the liquidation of war debts, a. broader outlook than narrow nationalism, freer trade and less restrictions of all kinds between nation and nation. Co-operation, not isolation, has been its aim. It has been a failure. “EUROPE SEETHES” “Europe seethes with hates and mistrust, and now at the present time with possible outbreaks of all kinds in every part of the world Great Britain laces this situation with a navy greatly below the required strength for trade protection. In 1914 it had 114 cruisers and that was none too many, for 568 British allied and neutral merchant ships were sunk in the first year. By September, 1917, 41 cruisers were employed oil convoy work in the Atlantic alone. In 1936 it will have only 50 and many ot them obsolescent. In 3914 it had 146,000 officers and men. Now it has 90,300 the lowest number since 1895-96. Since 1914 its naval tonnage has been decreased by 47 pel' cent. “In money Britain’s naval estimates have, decreased by about £4,000,000 since 1924, whilst those of the other signatories to the Washington and London Naval Treaties have increased by £28,500,000. The personnel of the United States Navy is now 115,200 and that ol Japan 87,000. These figures speak for themselves. Nothing astonishes me more than the way the political cry of the ‘intolerable burden o§armamcnts’ is accepted by people who do not even trouble to look into' budgetary figures that are easily obtainable. “The bill for <tlie navy alone in Britain is £1 8s per head of population.. The value of the overseas trade of Great Britain in 1925 was £2,000,000,000, and therefore on a navy estimate of £50,000,000 they were paying 2£ per cent, per annum insurance. Til New Zealand you pay 12s per head for all three lighting services. You pay £2 8s per head for education alone. Where is the intolerable burden of armaments?”