ARMY ESTIMATES

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 169, 10 March 1932, Page 5

ARMY ESTIMATES

(Press. Assn.-

further reduced savings effpcted at cost of efficiency of forces discussion in gommons

-By Telegi-aph — Copyright).

Rec. Mar. 9, 8.0 p.m. LONDON, Wednesday. The army estimqtes were * preserited in the House of Commons to-day by the, Finaiicial Secretary "to the War Office, Mr A.' .Duff Cooper. They showe.d the amount asked for to be £36,488,999, a savirig of £3,442,000 on the sum vo'ted last' year. This reduction was achieved by drastic ecohomies and the suspension of many essential army services, One ecoriomy of £1,000,000 was obtained by cahcelling 'the territorial army's annual camp training, a saving that cannot be repeated next yeai\ Mr. Duff Cooper recalled that his Labour predecessor at the War' Office, Mr. W. Stephen Sanders, in presentr ihg the estimates last year, stated th,at economies had been carried to the utmost practical limit. Nevertheless the Army Councii had been requested to meet the special call for economy by saving £3,5 00^0 00. This year's estimates must therefore not be taken as a standard to which future estimates could be expected to conform. , He paid a special trihute to the small British force now bearing the grave responsibility in Shanghai. Members of this force were performing difficult duties in a spirit worthy

of the Army's best traditions. The British soldier in Shanghai, as in other places in the past, had shown himself one of the best ambassadors for peace. Major C. R. Attlee (Labour, Limehouse) said that despite all the reductions, the nation was still spending hundreds of millions yearly on the fighting services, which was an indication of the general insanity with which the world's affairs were being conducted, seeing that all nations had renounced war. Mr. L. C. M. S. Amery (Conservative) said that the statements of the Admiralty and War Office showed that our defence equipment was entirely linadequate. The situation in the Far East was more eloquent than evasive formulas. Our power to contribute to world peace would depend, in the future as in the past, upon our armed strength. Any nndue weakness on our part would bring war nearer.