THE WIDE WORLD

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18335, 1 March 1934, Page 10

THE WIDE WORLD

Points of View Some Newspaper Opinions.

PUBLIC WORKS WORK New York World-Telegram: The country is learning another thing about a public works programme. That is, that it will actually produce jobs in large numbers. The figures on public works ini prove niont have been made public by. Secretary of Interior Rkes, the Public Works Administrator. About 3,000,000 men have booh recalled to jobs because of P.W.A. expenditures. Approximately 1,183,267 ; men have been rc-employcd through the Civil Works Administration; about 347,623 have been given jobs by reason of the creation of the Civilian Conservation Corps, and the remainder are .at work on jobs financed by P.W.A. funds. GERMAN PREPAREDNESS Dr. Shepard Stone, in Current History: Impartial observers are agreed that Germany’s military strength is already potentially far greater than is supposed. The official budget estimates for 1932-1933 provided for an expenditure of 675,200,000 marks (161,547,240 dollars at par) for the military and naval forces. Expenditures on war materials in 1931 amounted to £6,000,000, as against the £4,000,000 for the British army, which is 50 per cent larger. The amount was iiearly 60 per cent of what was required in 1913, when the German army Was five times larger. Allowing for the purchasing value of money, German expenditure on wav material per soldier amounted to at least three times as much as it did before the war. This is.a curious fact when it is remembered that the present German army does not possess or maintain such expensive weapons as tanks and heavy guns. THE PAN-AMERICAN ILLUSION .. Ignatius Phayre ill The National Review: At the Montevideo Congress the United States hoped to conclude far-roaching trade pacts with the leading republics, including Montevideo. But in tills matter langor prevails in those twenty varied nations. They are far more concerned with the vital problem of their own sovereignty. What the United States still envisages is the grandiose Pan-American dream: "Washington as the central powerhouse of a federated , Empire 12,000,000 (square miles ih extent, with a population of about 220,000,000. Thus, with all Britain’s Dominions rated as “hostages,” securely held by economic and financial ties, America would have this New World to herself. She would then indeed be an all-suffering “is.opolity” of gigantic resources, wholly independent of Europe. WAR’S SHADOW SEEN v Frank H. Simonds in The Atlantic Monthly; The truth is that war lias becomo, not an immediate probability, but an eventual cortfiinty, because the German Revolution has shattered the last hope that there can be any system of peace internationally accepted and assured' by the equal yielding of all nations to the moral and legal authority of the Leaguo of Nations. Between the nations which desire Changes in the territorial decisions of Paris and those which arc prepared to resist, to tho death all programmes of change, the basis of understanding is undiscovcrable. - . rr : . OUR PARAMOUNT AIM Sunday Tithes (London) : The Government 's persistence in negotiation about disarmament is not an obsession, as some people seem to think. It. is a recognition of the fact that success would fix the whole character of the twentieth century, and if wo could be the means of establishing a new internationalism on sure foundations our national prestige would be even higher this century than in the last.- That the Government is fired with this ambition and is making it the main object of its foreign policy is greatly to its credit. Daily Express (London): The milk scheme is a muddle. Mr. Thomas Baxter, chairman of the Milk Board, is defending himself desperately. He says that the success of the scheme depends upon the control of Dominion imports. The scheme was drawn up after this country had agreed not to control Dominion imports. Why did Mr. Baxter and his c’ommittee make such a scheme? Condemnation of tho milk scheme carries with it the denunciation of them. Daily Express (London) : The Gov ernment are preparing to go and justify themselves before the country. Ministers will make speeches telling the people what good Ministers they are. They need not bother. Sir Stafford Cripps has done in one speech more for their cause tfyan they could do if they shouted together or separately, What Cripps says is: Lot the Socialists uso tho trade unionists to bring about a general strike. If that Is to succeed machinery must be made ready for seizing power at the end of the strike. What will the trade unions say to this proposition? You shall not butcher us to make a Moscow holiday. -