OMINOUS DEFENCE COSTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22819, 28 August 1937, Page 12

OMINOUS DEFENCE COSTS

New Zealand should shortly learn from the Budget the cost of strengthened and reorganised sea, land and air forces. Last financial year the estimated expenditure on defence was set down at £1,261,530, an increaso of £250,000. Another sharp rise in the vote is bound to occur this year because the new and enlarged programmes for. Navy and Air Force are being actively carried out, while Territorial reorganisation has been adopted. A foretaste of the heavy cost of modern armaments is given by the Commonwealth Budget, in which the portentous sum of £11,500,000 is provided. The rapid advance of Australian defence expenditure in recent years is shown in the following table: — 1932-3.3 . . . . £3,194,196 1933-34 . . . . 4,166,048 1934-3/5 . . . . 5,519,856 1935-36 . . . . 7,017,121 1936-37 . . 8,809,107* 1937-38 . . . . 11,500,000* ■ *Estimates. Apparently the latest vote is regarded as abnormal and in the nature of emergency provision because only £6,000,000, or a little more than half the total, is charged on the Budget, that is, on current revenue. Of the remainder £3,000,000 is to come out of the trust account —reserves built up from surpluses in previous years. The last £2,500,000 is to be raised by loan. Thus Australia has promptly followed the precedent set by the Chancellor of the Exchequer four months ago. In Britain 30 per cent of the bill for rearmament is being met by borrowing; in Australia the percentage is 22. If account be also taken of the amount the Commonwealth is transferring from reserves, however, the comparison is far favourable to her. The fact then emerges that while Britain is paying 71 per cent of current defence expenses from current revenue, Australia is paying only 52 per cent. But from whatever angle the figures be viewed, they must be considered as ominous in peacetime.