REARMAMENT

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXX, 5 October 1936, Page 5

REARMAMENT

MR CHAMBERLAIN’S REFERENCES CONSERVATIVE PARTY CONFERENCE CRITICISM BY ENGLISH PRESS '.British Official Wireless) (Received sth October, 11.30 a.m.) RUGBY, 3rd October. Editorial comment in the morning papers is principally directed to the speech which the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr Neville Chamberlain, delivered at the Conservative Party conference.

The conference was delighted with the assurance that the Prime Minister himself had “every expectation that by the time Parliament reassembled he would be fully able to cope with the heavy tasks which will then lie before him.”

Mr Chamberlain said: “When I consider the disturbed conditions of the world and all the restrictions which still hamper international trade, I cannot but be astonished at the progress of our industry. Every month since January there has been an increase in employment at an average of nearly 90,000 a month. This improvement is not confined to particular areas; it covers almost every part of the country and nearly all the important industries. Even the depressed areas, the most obstinate and difficult part of the unemployment problem, is beginning to feel the effects of the revival.” Mr Chamberlain stated that wage increases recorded in 1936 represented another £18,000,000 yearly in the pockets of the wage earners. Comment shows that the papers attach the greatest importance to the passages in the Chancellor’s speech relating to rearmament. The Chancellor told his audience the reasons, as the Minister responsible for the national finances, with which he had reached the conviction that the “state of the world rendered it essential to embark on the largest programme of expenditure on the defence of the country ever undertaken in time of peace. When the programme is completed we shall once more have a Navy adequate to protect our vital lines of communication. We shall have an Army trifling in numbers beside the vast conscript armies of the continent, but equipped with the most modern weapons and mechanical devices that science can give us. We shall have an Air Force which in speed, range, power and machines and in the quality of its personnel will be second to none. I regard our Air Force when fully developed as the most formidable deterrent to war that could be devised. I support the establishment with greater conviction and enthusiasm because every one knows it will never be used to make an unprovoked attack on any other country.” The Chancellor’s speech is not without its critics in the press, i The “Daily Express” finds Mr Chamberlain’s drum somewhat muffled and his rearmament’plans too distant. Mr Chamberlain said it was futile and dangerous to attempt to distinguish between armaments necessary for Britain’s own defence and what was required for the fulfilment of her international obligations. The “Manchester Guardian” finds in this statement a reason for despair, and is forced to believe that this Government still cannot understand even what is meant by the wisdom of collective security. They talk of defence and collective security as though they were two different things. The “Daily Herald” from a similar angle says: “Once we find private confidence and national competitive armaments as in some way a guarantee of peace and security. One would think It impossible that such a belief could survive August, 1914, but here it is again vigorous and dominant as ever, with nothing changed except where then it was the Navy which was to secure peace, it is now the Air Force of terrific striking power.”