STEADY EXPANSION

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 37, 13 February 1937, Page 9

STEADY EXPANSION

DEFENCE EXPENDITURE * CHANCELLOR’S WARNINGS Mr Neville Chamberlain has several times warned the people of Britain of the inevitability of further defence expenditure on a large scale and of the likelihood of a defence loan. Winding up the debate on his £BOO,000,000 Budget last year, he declared that “people ought to feel that they must pay for defence. To ppstpone taxation now would only lead to loss of confidence.” He asserted at that time that since 1933 Germany had spent £2,000,000,000 on armaments. In a later debate, while he admitted that taxation was at an undesirable level he emphasised that for some time to come it would be unavoidable. The original estimate for the year included £178,000,000 for defence services, a figure increased by the supplementary estimates. The armament programme in Britain was repeatedly expanded after the first announcement of the intention to spend £20,000,000 in enlarging the Royal Air Force. Early last year, with the partial failure of the naval limitation conference foreseen because of the attitude of Japan, Cabinet began work on a great new defence scheme for which enormous figures were forecast in responsible quarters. Estimates ranged from £200,000,000 to £400,000,000, and, according to one source the naval expenditure alone was expected to be £150,000,000. Last March a White Paper revealed the Government’s intentions to increase the Navy to 70 cruisers, to replace overage destroyers and submarines (since then there have been moves to retain much destroyer tonnage due for scrapping), the strengthening of the fleet air arm, and the reorganisation and re-equip-ment of army formations. The Navy Estimates were then fixed at £69,900,000, almost £10,000,000 more than the total in the previous year. Only £4,600,000 was for new construction. The Army Estimates were announced as £490,000,000, an increase of £5.700,000, and the Air Estimates at £43,000.000, an increase of £19,000,000. The Minister for Air revealed that R.A.F. supplementary' estimates would be about £10.000,000, and the supplementary vote for the Navy was revealed as £10,300,000. That the Government meant to raise a defence loan was certain. In a broadcast speech in explanation of the Budget. Mr Neville Chamberlain said (after announcing that provision for defence had risen from £124,000,000 to £178,000,000), “when perhaps next year we begin borrowing to meet some part of the much greater expenditure we shall then be incurring no one can justly accuse us of shirking our responsibilities or departing from methods of sound finance which have raised us to so high a level and inspired confidence throughout the entire world.”

COMING SOON? WAR IN FAR EAST DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE MOSCOW, Feb. 11. Marshal Bluecher, Commander of the Soviet Far East army, stated that a Russo-Japanese war is coming very soon, according to official documents from the highest Japanese military quarters. TRAFFIC IN RUSSIA EASTERN GATES CLOSED SHIPS AT VLADIVOSTOK TOKIO. Feb. 1. All rail traffic into Russia from Japan has been stopped at Mancfiuli and Pogranitchnaya, and all ferry traffic barred entry at Vladivostok. Two Japanese steamers serving as ferries between the mainland and Vladivostok were denied wharfage at that port. Their crews were detained and searched. The ill-treatment of Russian nationals in Manchukuo is given as the Soviet’s reason for the closure, which may only be temporary. Meanwhile traffic cannot proceed to Europe via Siberia. The Japanese Government believes that the action is the result of allegations at the Moscow treason trial that its military attaches plotted with Soviet railway officials. If this is true, a cleaning-out of unreliable officials is probably going on.