EMPIRE DEFENCES

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19584, 16 March 1938, Page 7

EMPIRE DEFENCES

SPEEDING UP EXPANSION MENACE OF. GERMANY ADDITIONAL OUTLAY HEAVY BURDEN FACED (Titer. Tel. Copyright—United Press Assn,) (Reed. March 15, 2.40 p.m.) LONDON, March 14. The Australian Associated Press says that when the Prime Minister, Mr. Neville Chamberlain, in his speecli in the House of Commons, regarding the international situation, said: "I hope that no one, whatever the preconceptions may be, will regard himself as excluded from any extension of the national effort,” he pronounced the imminence of a great speeding up of the expansion of Britain’s armaments for defending the interests of Britain and the Empire. His meaning, in a nutshell, is that the British Cabinet’s policy is a sequel to the European crisis. Details of the expansion programme are already being worked out by the Cabinet with the Committee of Imperial Defence.

The magnitude of the undertaking is thq best reflection of'how menacing Britain regards Germany. Undoubtedly the abnormal additional expenditure involved will heavily burden all sections of the community, but it is gathered that the Government, iii the effort to avoid crippling increases of direct taxation and dislocation of industry, will regard armaments >as a special case, entitling the raising of a good proportion of the money required by mew loans.

APPEAL FOR RESTRAINT CALMNESS IN CRISIS CAN BERR A DTSOUSSTONS (Reed. March 15, 3.10 p.m.) CANBERRA, March 15. The Federal Ministers conferred almost continuously throughout the week-end and yesterday on the international situation. The Prime Minister of Australia, Mr. J. A. Lyons, would not make any disclosures, but in a brief statement admitted that the situation was extremely delicate. He made an appeal to the people of Australia to exercise calmness and restraint and not to make any rash or provocative statements while the present atmosphere of international tension prevailed.