GERMAN REARMAMENT.

Wairarapa Age, 13 February 1936, Page 5

GERMAN REARMAMENT.

MOST SERIOUS VIEW TAKEN IN ENGLAND. URGENCY OF PREPAREDNESS. WEAKNESS OF COLLECTIVE SYSTEM. i LONDON, February 11. The “Manchester Guardian’s” diplomatic writer says that Government quarters take a most serious view of German re-armament, though they have never regarded it lightly and did not foresee how all the moral material resources of the nation would be subordinated to it. It is now thought in London that British re-armament must be hastened as a matter of the gravest urgency. The weakness of the collective system makes it necessary for Britain to be able to repel attack by the strongest European Power. Simultaneously every effort will be made to strengthen the collective system. Britain is more deeply involved in European affairs than at any time since the end of the Great War. The general opinion in Whitehall seems to be that if Britain remains aloof from Europe a general war is inevitable. War may be averted if Britain is sufficiently strong and also takes an active part in the consolidation of collective security. The close Anglo-French relations and the signs of concord between England and Russia have already persuaded Rumania and Poland that the collective system is not the shaky structure it formerly appeared to be. Germany is losing her belief that she can expand by dealing piecemeal with her neighbours, whom she is now realising are parts of a system to which Britain also belongs. This has caused the deepest disappointment to HenHitler, whose declared policy has been to detach Britain from Europe. Germany’s foreign policy is likely to become more cautious, and indications are that she will first raise the question of colonies, which does not concern raw materials, but her prestige, but British official opinion is that Germany has not the slightest chance of recovering a single colony. Germany is also likely to decide upon the most effective way of recovering the demilitarised zone before the end of the year, as she cannot expand eastwards or towards Austria until she has secured her rear by fortifying the demilitarised zone. BRITAIN’S FORCES. FULL INQUIRY NOT FAVOURED. (Received Wednesday, 5.5 p.m. LONDON, February 11. Lord Strabolgi, in the House of Lords, moved for a full inquiry into the organisation, equipment and control of British fighting forces in view of the proposed increased expenditure on them. The Rt. Hon. Sir Eyres-Mon-seU (First Lord of the Admiralty) replied that an inquiry commission was not acceptable, because the completion of its report would occupy three years. The only realistic test of the bombs versus battleships issue would be war. It was realised that guns firing vertically must supplement guns firing horizontally. Satisfactory progress was being made in providing them. Air attacks had not rendered battleships obsolete. The Admiralty had conducted sufficient secret experiments to provide adequate information for modern battleship construction. The motion was lost. DEFENCE MINISTRY. CONSIDERATION BY HOUSE OF COMMONS. SCHEME NOT PRACTICABLE. BUGBY, February 11. A private members’ Bill for the creation, of a Ministry of Defence will come up for the second reading in the House of Commons on Friday. The Bill proposes that the Ministry should consist of the principal Secretary of State, who should be president of the Defence Council, and the Secretary of State and Under-Secretary for each of the three service departments—the Admiralty, the War Office, and the Air Ministry—for purposes connected with the development and maintenance of the three fighting services in an up-to-date and efficient condition. The Ministry of Defence would be responsible to the Government for the proper consideration of all strategical and tactical questions bearing on the defence of the realm and for the proper equipment of all arms of the three fighting defence services.

Among other provisions, the Bill empowers the Government to appoint such representatives of the Dominions as their Prime Ministers may select to sit upon the Council. It is expected that after full discussion of the objects of the Bill it will be withdrawn before the division on the second reading is challenged. Cabinet at its weekly meeting to-morrow will probably decide the attitude which it will assume towards the measure. “The Times” understands that the Government, while it agrees that closer co-operation and co-ordination than exist at present are desirable, is convince that the creation of a special Ministry is impracticable. —(British Official Wireless).