FORCE IN PEACE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19137, 5 October 1936, Page 6

FORCE IN PEACE

BRITISH REARMAMENT LARGEST EVER KNOWN CHANCELLOR'S VIEW LONDON PRESS COMMENT (British Official Wireless.) Peed. 1.15 p.m. RUGBV, Oct. 4. Comment shows that the papers attach the greatest importance to passages relating to rearmament in the speech given by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Neville Chamberlain, at the conference at Aiargate of the Conservative Party. The Chancellor told bis audience the reasons, as the Minister responsible for the national finances, for which be had reached conviction on Iho subject. The state of the world rendered it essential to embnrl;. on the largest programme of expenditure on defence the country had ever undertaken in a time of pence, said Mr. Chamberlain. When the programme was completed Britain once, more would have a navy adequate to protect, her vital lines of communication.

"We shall have, an army, trifling in. numbers beside ilie vast conscript armies of the Continent, but equipped with the most modern weapons and mechanical devices that science, can give us." he continued. "\Yc shall have an air force which in speed, range, jjower, 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, f support its establishment with greater conviction and. enthusiasm because everyone knows it would never be used to make an unprovoked attack on any oilier country." PHYSICAL EDUCAT!ON

The Daily Telegraph comments on Air. Chamberlain's concluding' appeal for greater attention to physical education, and the Daily Alail considers this is one of the most anxious problems of the time.

The Chancellor's speech was not without its critics in the press. The Daily Express finds Air. Chamberlain's "dram" somewhat muffled, and his rearmament plans too distant. Air. Chamberlain said it was 'futile and dangerous to attempt to distinguish between the armaments necessary for Britain's own defence, and what was required for the fulfilment of her inter national obligations. The Manchester Guardian finds in this statement, reason for despair, and is forced to believe that this Government still cannot, understand even. what, i.s meant by the wisdom of collective security.' "The Government talks of defence and collective security as though they were two different thing;;," says the Guardian.

The Daily Herald, the Labour journal, from a, similar angle, says: "Once again we find private confidence in national competitive armaments as in some way a guarantee of peace and security. One would think if impossible that such a belief could survive after August, of 1914, but here it is again, as vigorous and dominant, as ever, with nothing changed except that then it was the navy which was to secure peace and it is now an air force of terrific striking power."

The resolution on defence armaments tabled by the. national executive of the Labour Party for discussion at the. conference at Edinburgh, adds that the conference declarer, the continuance of vested interests in the private manufacture; of arms to be a. grave contributory danger lo the peace, of the world.