REARMING POLICY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22608, 22 December 1936, Page 6

REARMING POLICY

ME. BALDWIN'S SPEECH nothing to retract GREAT NATIONAL ISSUE [from our own correspondent] LONDON, Nov. 21 Following closely upon his recent "appalling frankness" speech in the House of Commons, when he said that the National Government would have lost the last election had it declared two years ago that Britain must rearm, the Prime Minister, Mr, Stanley Baldwin, proclaimed at Glasgow this week that he had nothing to retract. His earlier speech aroused considerable comment throughout the country ami brought upon him no little criticism from his opponents. Mr. Baldwin's speech at Glasgow was, therefore, anticipated. "Governments, of course, are used to being attacked," he said. "We have been blamed for embarking on a rearmament programme at all, and we have been blamed for not having started two years before we did. I recently made a statement in the House of Commons explaining why the present rearmament programme had not been started earlier. 1 have nothing to'withdraw and nothing to retract. National Programme "But it must be emphasised that rearmament is, above all things, a national programme," Mr. Baldwin continued. "It is a great misfortune—and we have been' handicapped by it—that a great national issue such as this should ever have been drawn into the arena of party politics. The solution of the problem would have been assured if all parties could have treated the question of national security as ono transcending all political issues." European events in 1933 and 11)34 and the failure of the disarmament conference made it clear that Britain would be obliged to abandon her policy of one-sided disarmament. "Now th*>re are people who seem to imagine," he added, "that the Government at that time should have come forward with an extensive rearmament programme. The Government of the day had no mandate. Putting himself back in 1934, j I do not think there is a man in the I country who would maintain that we i should have got a verdict on rearmament then. Ministers —and I may say, 1 think quite reasonably, that 1 myself more than any—drew the attention of the country to the danger^m our speeches in 1934 and 1935. " Two Things Happened "

"Then two other things happened—the denunciation by Germany of the military clauses of the Versailles Treaty with the reintroduction of conscription, and the war between Italy and Abyssinia, which convinced large sections of our people that rearmament was essential in this country if we were ever to play an effective part in the system of collective security. "Those events, and a certain amount of campaigning, I think, gave our electors the instruction that was necessary, and last year they gave a verdict which, by its size, astonished a great number of electoral pundits, a verdict in favour of rearmament. "I believe still that was the earliest moment at which such a verdict might have been given. I said in the' House of Commons, as I have often said, that democracy may lag two years behind a dictator. Because when you reverse a policy, whatever it may be. a dictator can reverse it in a night, and the people still follow him the next morning. There is no democratic statesman in the world who can do that." Peace With Readiness Addressing the overflow meeting, Jlr. Baldwin said that they all knew whata perfectly ghastly condition Europe was in. If he were to describe his broad line of policy, he would say that it was peace at almost any price, but at the same time to be ready, that no man might attack them. That meant sacrifice—first of all, in the most serious way, the sacrifice men had to give who joined the Forces. After referring to rearmament in Europe, the Prime Minister said: "When there are madmen about, you want a good stick with you. That is what we are doing. Many of us will pay lip service to democracy, but we are not ready to do anything for it, or make any sacrifice to keep it alive."