Defence Loan

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 26, 15 February 1937, Page 7

Defence Loan

(Britxsb Official Wireleaa.)

debate this week Weight of Rearmameat Not Yet Felt CHASTENING REM1NDER .

(Received 15, 12.30 p.m.) RUGBY, Feb. 13,It is now anticipated that th« debate on defence, which will be raised in the House of Commons oa the committee stage of the necessary financial resolution- seeking authority to raise up to £400,000,600, will extend over two days next week. According to the present plans, the debate will open on Thursday instead of Wednesday, as originally intended. The request by the Labour Party of a White Paper givihg fuU details of the work in hand and in contemplation, has been acceded to, and the document is already under prepavatien, Speaking in London, Sir Tfcomas Inskip said that the present prosperity in Britain was not due to xearmaiaent work, but was a natural, sound and genuine wave of prosperity, and tluit the weight of the xearmament pr?gramine had hardly begun to be felt by industry. Mr Hore-Belisha, speaking at Edinburgh, said that while at present d»fence waa the paramount consideratiou. in Government expenditure, its OffO0i* iu stimulating revival must not be exaggerated. The stimulus for that revival came from other causes. Defence expenditure, though placing a strain on certain trades, was small in relation to Britain 's normal faetorv; output of about £22,000^000 annually. Every effort had been made to arrange for the fiilfilment of defence requirements without dislocating the nOfmal development of industry. The xequest that would be made to Parliament to borrow up to £400,000,000 might well bn a chastening xeminder, wherever it might be appropriate, that Britain was ready to employ in the area of her. reeponsibilitiea her man power, her materials and — what ever had heen the most powerful and irresistible of her weapons — her financial xesources.