THE BRITISH ARMY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20820, 12 March 1931, Page 10

THE BRITISH ARMY.

From what some will regard as an Unexpected quarter has come significant support for the opinion that, whatever progress has been made toward the general renunciation of war, the time is inopportune for the making of reductions in British military forces. The Labour Government in Britain, in its Army estimates, has made no reduction, and the Minister of War has given convincing reasons for this decision. Close attention, he has assured the House of Commons, has been given to the need for economy, but the clear facts of the international situation make reduction unwise. The enormous reductions already made by Britain have not been reproduced by other countries, and the Governr ment is against any further "unilateral disarmament." An increase in British recruiting has induced the Government to consider the question of filling the" ranks of officers, and the Minister hopes a method may be found for promotion from the ranks of trained soldiers with a scientific knowledge of what modern conditions require. All. this and much more, accompanied as it is by a clear declaration of the Government's eagerness to promote general disarmament, should give pause to those who glibly argue that an effective desire for universal peace implies necessarily an abandonment of military preparedness. This argument is well known by the Minister of War. "It is assumed," he said some time ago, "by some theorists and speculative philosophers that if we reduced considerably and consistently, without regard to other nations, we should help along general disarmament; unfortunately, the facts confounded the theorists," Such theorists and philosophers are not unrepresented in this Dominion, nor unrepresented in its present Parliament. When the Defence Amendment Bill was before the House last September, the Minister of Defence claimed that New Zealand wa# now "able to ease up in respect to military matters," and cited "the strong feeling in favour of world peace" as one reason for this "fortunate position." Another v member of the House devoted most of his speech to an elaboration of the idea. The argument so confidently advanced has its answer in what the British Government has now done, despite the extremists of the left wing of its party. It is impossible to forget, in this connection, that the New Zealand Labour Party is openly sympathetic with these back-benchers in their doctrinaire views and critical of those on the British , Treasury benches who are wisely determined on achieving .disarmament by general agreement. The question is one on which an appeal to facts is at least as essential as an impressive lauding of the will to peace.