“BILLION DOLLAR BUBBLE”

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 259, 23 January 1928, Page 1

“BILLION DOLLAR BUBBLE”

OPPOSITION TO U.S. NAVY BUILDING PLANS MENACE TO WORLD PEACE By Cable.—Press Association. — Copyright. .. , NEW YQRK, Saturday. The Washington correspondent of the .“New York. World” says the multi-million dollar naval building; Scheme which the Administration has acquiesced is being inflated so rapidly that it appears destined to be a “billion dollar bubble.” Both the Republican and Democrat majorities of' the all-powerful Appropriation and Finance Committees have determined to fight to a finisn all efforts to appropriate the money necessary to make the naval expansion dream come true. The project, if carried out. would raise the annual cost of the navy to more than £ 100,000,000, and would increase the annual tax burden by at least £40,000,000. Also it would, in the opinion of many, precipitate an open armament race between the British and other naval Powers. As the Bill now stands, the President’s hands would be tied even if the limitation of naval armaments should be decided upon at the 1931 conference. Mr. C. Glass, Democrat member of the Senate for Virginia, to-day attacked tile programme as “an imposition upon the taxpayers and a menace to world peace.” He said it started, apparently, as Administration bluff, and was taken seriously by the Naval Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives. It was causing in ternatjonal apprehension over the real intention of the United States.

Mr. W. E. Borah is opposed to the project. He said he intended to attack it as soon as the Bill came before the Senate.—A. and N.Z.-Sun.