THE REAL DANGER

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 228, 28 September 1935, Page 9

THE REAL DANGER

GERMANY, NOT ITALY WARNING BY MR. CHURCHILL GIGANTIC RE-ARMING [By Telegraph—Frees Association—Copyright] JXINDON, Sept. 26. Mr. Winston Churchill, addressing the City -Carlton Club, said: “I am surprised that so great a man as Signor Mussolini is willing, even eager, to put Italy in such an uncomfortable military and financial position. Casting the flower of Italian manhood on a barren shore at the end a drainpipe like the Suez Canal is to give hostages to fortune in a manner unparalleled in history. I cannot understand his embarking on a campaign against the opinion of the whole world in a region which conquerors for 4000 years have not thought it worth while to subdue. Italians ought to be grateful to Britain for endeavouring to keep them out of a trap.” Mr. Churchill added that the rearmament of Germany was the greatest and grimmest fact in the world to-day. Herr Hitler was spending at least six times as much on arms as Britain. “The vultures are circling and hoping to devour the Empire’s carcass,” said Mr. Churchill, “but we are going to disappoint them, despite the lamentable doctrine that as Britain possesses many colonies wo should slice up the Empire and provide equal rations to newcomers. I am surprised that no member of Cabinet has stamped out such a squalid heresy, as once others thought we wore prepared to redistribute His Majesty’s (Dominions there would be such an ugly rush that our inheritance would be torn to pieces. We would be left starving with the population of a first-class Power on a little island.” Candidate for Cabinet? The Sun-Herald News Agency says that Mr. Churchill’s speech aroused considerable discussion, especially his full agreement with the Government in the advocacy of large and rapid rearmament. It is generally believed that Air. Churchill wants to join the Cabinet particularly as Defence Minister, which portfolio the Government is believed to have been considering. This would enable Mr. Churchill to direct the proposed re-armament programme, including naval building involving a national loan probably exceeding £150,000 000.

A feature of Mr. Churchill’s speech was his declaration that Germany and not Italy is the Empire’s real danger. He described Germany as re-arming ou a gigantic scale and with unexampled speed. The whole power of Nazidom was concentrated night and day on warlike preparations for air, land, and sea. The German arsenals, private factories and tho main part of German industry wore absorbed in building the most formidable armaments devisable by science.