STEFS TO SECURITY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 May 1939, Page 5

STEFS TO SECURITY

NEW & MOMENTOUS COURSE TAKEN BY BRITAIN BURDENS & RESPONSIBILITIES. PRICE ALL ARE WILLING TO PAY. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY. April 28. The Air Minister, Sir Kingsley Wood, speaking in London today, said that Britain, with the full assent of the whole nation, had taken a new and momentous course in its international policy and had entered upon heavy and considerable obligations and undertakings to other nations which would never otherwise have been considered or contemplated. "They were not lightly undertaken.", he said, "but we do not shrink from them. They threaten no one. They have no ulterior object, but were solely made in order that the peace might be kept and because there was no other course open to any of the great nations which believed in liberty and freedom not for themselves alone, but throughout the world.” These new undertakings, he said, involved this country in great and increased responsibilities. He added that the Budget meant heavy burdens, but it was a price they were all willing to pay for world peace and national security. Compulsory military training was another step and an essential step to security and peace. RECRUITS POUR IN BRITISH TERRITORIALS. WHOLE'I936 TOTAL EXCEEDED IN THREE WEEKS. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, April 29. Forty thousand territorials enlisted in the first three weeks of this month, exceeding the number for the whole’ of 1936. The British Legion has an estimated number of 300,000 members already trained and fit to respond to the Government’s latest appeal to exservice men between the ages of 45 and 51 to join national defence companies as part of the Territorial reserve for home defence. These companies will undertake essential duties on the outbreak of war or in an emergency in order to free the regular troops for service in other fields. MR ANTHONY EDEN SERVING WITH OLD REGIMENT. RECENTLY APPOINTED MAJOR. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, April 29. Mr Anthony Eden, whose appointment as. a major in the Rangers was announced in the London Gazette, has offered his services to the War Office in any capacity. The Rangers is the territorial unit of his old regiment, the King’s Royal Rifles, in which he served during the war. Mr Eden has recently been at Tidworth undergoing a refresher course. He remarked: "I am only doing the same as thousands of others.”

CONSCRIPTION IN ULSTER MR DE VALERA'S PROTEST. “INFRINGEMENT OF IRISH SOVEREIGNTY.” LONDON, April 30. It is believed that Mr De Valera, Prime Minister of Eire, informed Mr Chamberlain that conscription in Ulster would be.regarded as an infringement of Irish "sovereignty. He pointed out that nearly half of those who would be conscripted there pay allegiance to Eire. A further complication concerns the position of Irishmen resident in England. TRADE UNION ATTACK "STATESMEN PANICSTRICKEN. LONDON, April 29. The Trade Union leader, Mr Bevin, addressing the transport workers’ con--ference today, said that his impression, after leaving the Trade Union Councils conference with Mr Chamberlain, was that the Government was not committed to and was not working out an oi ■ ganised system of collective security but purely improvising. British statesmen, he said, were panic stricken. The voluntary system of recruiting had not broken down. There were thousands of unequipped territorials. Britain, if defeated, would be defeated by the incompetence of the Government and the administrators. Mr Chamberlain and his followers intended to make conscription permanent, adjusting the age limits as time progressed. The people must be shown the whole of the programme-if such a fundamental change were necessary.