INADEQUATE, FOR SECURITY

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 24, 29 January 1938, Page 9

INADEQUATE, FOR SECURITY

PRESIDENT'S PROPOSALS

800,000,000-DOLLAR LONG-TERM NAVAL BUILDING

PROGRAMME

(United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) (Received January 29, 9.30 a.m.) ' . NEW YORK, January 28. In a message to Congress, President Roosevelt uttered a warning that America's national defences are inadequate for security and called for an 800,000,000 dollar long-term naval building programme, with an immediate start on two additional battleships and two cruisers. He asked for an addition of over 20,000,000 to the billion-dollar defence programme for 1939. ' Up to the present, he said, the Government had failed to secure agreement among the nations for limitation of arnianients and to end aggression, and until agreement was reached he was compelled to think of the national safety. He recommended a seven-point defence programme, as follows: (1) The authorisation of army and anti-aircraft additions to cost 8,800,000 dollars, with 6,800,000 dollars for 1939. (2) An increased appropriation for enlarging the army enlisted reserve. (3) The authorisation of 6,080,000 dollars for army dies and material. : (4) Increased army munitions reserves. (5) The authorisation of a flat increase of 20 per cent, iri the strength of the navy. (6) An immediate start on the biiilding of tAvo battleships and two cruisers. (7) An appropriation of 15,000,000 dollars for. experimental naval vessels. < .... /

Adequate defence, said Mr. Roosevelt, involved simultaneous defence of every part of the United.States.. They could not assume that danger would ibe limited to one ocean and they could not be certain that the connecting link of the Panama Canal would ibe safe. "We must keep a potential enemy many hundreds of miles away from our continental limits," he declared. The re-armament proposals, he said, were designed solely for defence and to implement the nation's efforts for world peace, and were put forward specifically and solely because the piling up of additional land and sea armaments by other countries involved a threat to world peace and security. "It is necessary for us to realise," he said, "that world conditions today have resulted too often irf the discarding of those principles and treaties which underlie international law and order and in the entrance of many new factors into the actual > conduct of war. It is our clear duty to further every effort towards peace, but simultaneously to protect our nation. It is my constitutional duty to report to Congress that our national defences, ■in the light of the increasing armaments of other nations, are inadequate for the purposes of national security and require to be increased. For that reason the proportion of the cost of our military and naval forces to the total income of our citizens or the total cost of government is far lower than that of 'any other great nation, UNPRECEDENTED WORLD ARMAMENT. ; "It is with the deepest regret that I report to you that armaments are increasing1 * today at an unprecedented and alarming rate.' It is an ominous fact that at least one-fourth of the world's population is involved in merciless and devastating conflict, despite the fact that most of the people in those countries, including those where conflict rages, wish to live at peace." ,' Among points of special significance in the speech were the following:. "It is a well-known fact that the American standard of living makes our ships, guns, and planes cost more

to build than those' of any other .nation." ■ ' The President stressed the necessity for immediate legislation to eliminate profiteering in' a future war. Repeatedly the. President Gtressed that Europe and Asia were..afire with war, and intimated his fear that, the United States would .also catch fire from the conflagration. Despite the need of the United States to re-arm, America would not cease to search for peace, and the President was not unhopeful of achieving, that I end. - ". j The President asked that in view of; war'alarms Congress .should enact legislation to eliminate profiteering in any future war and to equalise the burdens of war as far as possible. NAVY EQUAL TO BRITAIN'S. While Mr.' Roosevelt's request for immediate expenditure is lower than was anticipated, the long-term programme will require nearly a billion dollars and give the United States a navy equalling that of Britain.' These requests are over and above the regular Army and Navy Estimates, which total a further billion dollars. An immediate start on the two new battleships will bring the total under construction to six. After President Roosevelt's message was received in Congress, Mr. Paul Vinson, chairman of the House of Representatives' Naval Affairs Committee, introduced a Bill authorising the 20 per cent, naval increase, and involving 800,000,000 dollars for 47 new ships, : including three dreadnoughts, 22 auxiliary vessels, a thousand additional aeroplanes, 1200 additional officers; and 20,000 more enlisted men. "The defence and. security of this country make it absolutely imperative that we maintain a navy second to none," said Mr. Vinson. : . ' , ■ . • The naval increases will include two aircraft carriers, eight cruisers, 25 destroyers, nine submarines, five destroyer tenders, three submarine tenders, four seaplane tenders, and three repair ships. ; , . . • ' s The navy's air strength will, be brought up to 3000 modern, planes. The Bill carries a provision permitting the President to suspend the construction of naval vessels in the event of an international agreement being reached for further limitation of naval armament. - , >.