MORE DEFENCE IN AIR

Taranaki Daily News, 16 October 1934, Page 9

MORE DEFENCE IN AIR

BRITISH GOVERNMENT’S POLICY. RAISING LEVEL OF ARMAMENTS. British Wireless. Rugby, Oct. 13. Events on the Continent during the last few months had made many people very uneasy about affairs in foreign countries, said Mr. Neville Chamberlain, Chancellor of the Exchequer, when speaking at Birmingham. That feeling had found expression in the recent Conservative Party conference at Bristol when the conference assured the Government of full support in any expenditure necessary to ensure the safety of the country.

No one in the world, said Mr. Chamberlain, believed that the British Government or the country would willingly do anything that would lead to war. Their whole interest lay in the opposite direction. All the efforts of the Government had been directed in trying to remove the causes of war, but would they not incur a terrible responsibility if some day, through neglect, the country found itself unable to protect itself against a hostile attack?

The Government had given long and, anxious consideration to the problem and had reached a conclusion that in a world where no one had disarmed and where others were continually increasing armaments a programme must now be embarked upon which would mean a very, considerable increase in the number of air squadrons available for home defence. This would involve making gqod some of the deficiencies which had been a’llowed to accumulate in some of the other forces. Mr. Chamberlain added that the Government would not, however, relax its efforts to prevent a general building up of the level in armaments.