“Taranaki Central Press” THURSDAY. FEBRUARY 18, 1937. BRITAIN’S REARMAMENT PROGRAMME.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 363, 18 February 1937, Page 4

“Taranaki Central Press” THURSDAY. FEBRUARY 18, 1937. BRITAIN’S REARMAMENT PROGRAMME.

The colossal B expenditure planned for the* revitalisation of Britain’s' defence fores is indicative of the state of the world at the present time. The policy of collective security has broken down. Italy in her Abyssinian campaign snapped her fingers at the League of Nations. Japan has long since ignored the League in the manner in which she rides rough-shod over China. Germany, though less direct than her Fascist ally, places German interests al • ways before those of the League. Even the South American States, Paraguay and Bolivia, carried on one of the bloodiest wars in history, in open defiance of the League.

Britain seems now also to have adopted the policy of selfdetermination in matters of defence. Though still anxious to remould the League into a workable organisation of international peace, she has given up all hopes, it would appear, of giving practical effect to the ideals on which the League was established unless backed by force. Hence the new defence programme planned on a scale unknown in our history but with a determination quite in keeping with the dogged nature of her people.

It might seem that the White Paper’s statement is contradictory when, after detailing the programme, the statement is made that the whole plan and policy is a contribution indispensable to peace and one which it is the duty of the British people to make. The Secretary of State for War, Mr. A. Duff-Cooper, has made a similar statement, that Britain was arming for peace.

We should remember, however, how the League fell down in applying such principles as sanctions to Italy at the time of the Abyssinian war. Sanctions proved useless when applied without force and without the threat of some armed might behind them. Neither France nor Britain, the chief instigators of sanctions and the upholders of the policy of collective security, had that armed might on which to base their acceptance of League principles. And now that Britain and France are repairing that omission, the power of the League, if it is to be exerted again, will become real and of some definite value.

Britain’s defences have undoubtedly been weak. That weakness has been contributory to the present unstable conditions of Europe. There are European nations to-day which are finding a new sense of national importance. They have adopted internal policies of active assertion of nationalism. In consequence, while the leading nations of the League are weak in armaments, those aggressive Powers are unmindful of the real power which could be placed behind the League. A strongly-armed Britain is in that sense a contribution to the power of the League, and hence to world peace.