OPPOSITION TO GOVERNMENT’S PROPOSALS

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 364, 19 February 1937, Page 5

OPPOSITION TO GOVERNMENT’S PROPOSALS

JUSTIFICATION FOR PLAN LIES IN CONDITION OF PRESENT TIME. A WEAK BRITAIN WEAKENS THE WORLD. The debate in the House of Commons on the Government’s proposal to raise by loan or from Budget surpluses £400,000,000 during the next five years for defence purposes, continues. The justification of the proposal, said the Chancellor, Mr. Neville Chamberlain, lay in the unprecedented conditions of the present time. The Government knew from its own experience that British influence waxed and waned with British strength. The strength of Britain was a steadying factor in international affairs and was the greatest bulwark for peace in the world to-day. Opposition to the proposals came from Mr. Pethick Lawrence (Labour), on the ground that they revealed no connection between the defence programme, nd th internal or, 1 policy of the Government. The Labour Party objected that the burden was not placed on the broadest backs by appropriation, but was imposed by borrowing which would inflate prices taxing thereby those least able to afford it.