Record Expenditure on Arms

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 70, 15 December 1937, Page 5

Record Expenditure on Arms

—Press Assn.-

1937 WORLD TOTAL Britain This Year Spendt ' £278,000,000 EFFORT TO AVOID WAR

(Bv Telegraph

—Copyright.)

(Received 15, 10.50 a.m.) GENEVA, Dec. 14. Expenditure on armaments throughout the world in 1937 reached the record total of £2-, 400, 000,000 according fco the League's Armaments Year Book, Ihe previous record, in 1936, wai £2,016,000,000. A total of 8,500,000 men are permanently under arms, compared with 6,000,000 in 1913. The various countries' Budgets do not include the hnge expenditure da semi-military organisations. A British Official Wireless^ message - reports that Sir Thomas Inskip, Minister for the Co-ordination of Defenot, speaking in London on the rearmament programme, said that the defence expenditure in 1913 was £77,000,000} iil 1934 it was £113,000,000 } and iu 19371 it amounted to £278,000,000. In 1938 to 1939 between £320,000,000 afid £340,000,000 would be spent. The Government, Sir Thomas added, depended on the ingenuity and skill of manufacturers for assistanee. If it had not been for the highest state of willingness on the part of the manufacturers the Government could not, even if it had nationalised industry* done one-tenth of what had been possible. Rearmament had not reached anything like the full momentum which it might attain in about 18 months. There were in various parts of the country new factories which as yet were only m the early stages of preparation and at which hundreds of thousands of men and possibly women would be employed. The industrial strength of the country was greater to-day by means of the rearmament programme. Britain had trained a new army of confident work people. Sir Thomas said that he had unfailing optimism regarding the British race and the aapacity of the Government to guide Britain' s policy so that the great disaster of war should be avoided.