Evening star., 1937-02-17
BRITISH REARM|NG
DEBATE IS OPENED
Unprecedented Conditions
Cited as Reason for ST.
5OO,OOO,O 900 Plan.
BY the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
LONDON, FEBRUARY 17.-Chancellor
of the Exchequer Neville Chamberlain
launched today a two-day debate on
the $500, ,0o0, 900 British defense pro-
gram with this declaration in Com
mons:
unprecedented conditions Of the
times have forced upon US this vast
expenditure"
He then moved adoption in Com
mittee on Ways and Means Of the res
olution authorizing q $4,000. 100000
arms loan.
Opponents Muster Forces.
Labor and Liberal leaders mustered
their forces for battle against the
governments attempt TO float the loan
and raise the remaining $500, ,o0o, 900
by taxation within the next five years.
Leaders Of the fight against the
vast peacetime defense measures, an
nounced in an offlcial white paper,
charged the program was inflationary
and would skyrocket the cost Of living
Included in the consequences of the
greatest expenditure for war that
Great Britain ever has contemplated
in peace, they declared, would be in
creased speculation and an exag-
gerated boom, with its attendant bad
economic effects.
Lack Of Coordination Charged.
Other critics opened fire on t.;
program as lacking coordination.
Financial observers estimated the
increased burden on the British tax
payer would average step-up in the
income tax rate to sl.37 in every S.
Of income. The average rate now is
$11s to IS.
Despite the developing opposition,
Premier Stanley Baldwin's govern
ment plunged ahead with grim de-
termination to make BEitain's navy
the most up-to-date In the world, her
air force as big as any on the
European continent and her small
army as efdcient as that Of any other
power.
Although faced with a shortage Of
steel, iron scrap and raw materials,
Britain Is hastily building up O huge
store OF arms and ammunition sufi-
cient to put more than two million
soldiers in the field Immediately it
becomes necessary.
Army Being Mechanized.
AS the first step toward complete
mechanization Of the army-one Of
the most ambitious conversion pro-
grams ever undertaken by any power
it was estimated 10000 Tommies will
abandon their rifles to shoulder new
lightweight types Of machine guns,
anti-tank guns and trench mortars.
Every fourth battalion Of regulars
will be supplied with the latest model
machine guns, developed by British
arms experts in secrecy. They are
known, however, to be capable Of ex-
traordinarily rapid fire.
Cavalry, pride Of the British army
on parade, will be almost entirely
abandoned. Horses will be supplanted
by light, fast tanks and armored cars.
100000 Rifles Ordered.
AS a war reserve, it Is estimated the
war office has in the past few months
ordered more than 100000 rifles.
The white paper also announced
the start Of a vast naval building pro-
gram with the ordered construction
Of three new capital ships and seven
cruisers, to be laid down in the 12-
month period starting April /.
Two aircraft cruisers, in addition to
two already being built, the paper
said, were under consideration.
The new capital ships. it was said.
will be similar to the two $40000,o00
ships-of -the-line recently laid down.