SOUTH AFRICA’S DEFENCES
INCREASE IN OUTLAY . PLANNED NO TRAINING IN ARMS FOR NATIVES (United Press Assn,— Telegraph Copyright) CAPE TOWN, September 8. The Minister for Defence (Mr O. Pirow) . has announced that the Government will spend £5,000,000 on additional arms and defence works and £1,000,000 on coastal defences. The expenditure will be spread over three years. The most necessary equipment will be purchased through Britain. Mr Pirow said that the Union was training land forces which were likely to be superior to any enemy they might meet, and the equipment of the air force would bear comparison with any inside or outside the British Commonwealth. At least two harbours were being fortified more strongly than those in any other Dominion.
The Government aimed at mobilizing 1000 pilots and 137,000 troops. Conscription would produce 150,000 more. The Government would never sanction the training of natives to use arms, but they would be used for all except actual military duties. Selected labour battalions from the Rand mines, operating under skilled miners, with an unlimited quantity of dynamite, could be of great military value.
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Southland Times, Issue 23610, 10 September 1938, Page 7
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181SOUTH AFRICA’S DEFENCES Southland Times, Issue 23610, 10 September 1938, Page 7
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