BRITAIN’S POLICY

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, 16 November 1927, Page 5

BRITAIN’S POLICY

DIRECTED TO PROMOTING PEACE BIG REDUCTION IN ARMAMENTS AIR MINISTER’S STRIKING SPEECH. (British Official Wireless.) (Received 16. 11.30 a.m.) Rugby, Nov. 15. Sir Samuel Hoars. Air Minister, speaking last nrght, referred to FieldMarshal Sir William Robertson’s recent strrkrng condemnation of war and welcomed the fact that so many men of different schools of thought and upbringrng were devoting their minds to means for preventing future wars. He urged that in the Empire progress of the subject should be kept above party politics and declared the determination of the Government to advance the cause of armament limitation and to do everything possible to enlist tyre support of other nations. COMPARISON WITH PRE-WAR Sir Samuel Hoare gave striking figures comparing Britain’s present forces with those before the war. In August, 1914, Great Britain had 44 battleships—in July, 1927. that number had been reduced to 12. In August. 1914. she had 80 cruises—she had now 37. In August. 1914, she had 183 destroyers—she had now 89 The number of men and officers in the navy just before the war was 145,600, whereas last year (the last date for which figures were available) that number was reduced to 100.700. In 1914 there were 174,500 officers and men in the army and last year that number had been reduced to 151,100. Taking all three services together, in 1914 the combined forces of the British fighting services was approximately 320,000 and last year, even'including about 30,000 officers and men in the new force, the number had been reduced to 284,000, At the end of the war Britain had the greatest force in the world but it was reduced to a strength so insignificant that all three (fblitical parties considered that the country s defence needed strengthening. FRANCE’S AIR FLEET. To-day, said Sir Samuel Hoare, Great Britain has 750 first line aeroplanes but the strength of the greatest air power in Europe—and he could make the comparison without fear of being misunderstood, for happily Britain was on the best of terms with France—was 1350 first line machines. Without desiring to iudge other countries Sir Samuel Hoare cited figures showing Britain to have gone far beyond other European nations in reducing armaments while her policy had invariably been directed to promoting peace