Safety First

The long awaited White Paper, disclosing how much His Majesty's Government will spend in 1938 on "The Empire's Greatest Peace Time Armaments Program" (TIME, May 3) was issued last week in London, debated for just one day and passed 347-to-133.

Before trying to digest any of its unpalatable, stupendous totals, an average taxpayer in any of the seven Great Powers might well ask: "How much per capita are we all paying for defense? How much did we actually pay in 1937?"

Governments do not make it easy to arrive at such figures, and some of them deliberately lie, but experts of the League of Nations think their researches, costing thousands of dollars yearly, have produced figures worthy of some credence, except in the case of Germany where no figures have been released. Using the League's figures for the other Great Powers, and taking for the Reich 1936 estimates which the British Statesman's Year-Book presents, the latest statistics show total expenditures in 1937 by each of the Great Powers such that per capita:

The German paid $5.57

" Italian 6.19

" Japanese 6.20

" Frenchman 6.93

" U. S. Citizen 7.69

" Russian 23.02

" Briton 27.24*

Sir John Simon, Chancellor of the Exchequer, showed in his White Paper last week planned expenditures of $1,758,750,000 for the coming fiscal year which begins April 1, whereas the total for the previous fiscal year was $1,417,500,000.

The new British national defense tax (TIME, June 28), a five-year super tax on business organizations, is expected to yield $100,000,000. The Chancellor will borrow $450,000,000./- Income-tax yield, Sir John Simon hopefully announced, is now running 13% above last year in the United Kingdom, but his White Paper is frank in showing that the Chancellor has not planned as yet where he will get some $275,000,000 of the $1,758,750,000 he is sure Mother Britain is going to spend on Safety First.

Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain recently sounded fair warning that rearmament expenditure by Britain will continue to increase each year at least through fiscal 1940. Explaining itself, the Chancellor's White Paper said: "The paper proceeds on the assumption, now almost universally accepted, that the steps taken by His Majesty's Government to make good our defense are unavoidable and that they furnish a steadying influence in the present state of international relations."

"I Would Fight!" As debate on the White Paper opened in the House of Commons this week, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain digressed to rebuke all who think he is not for the League of Nations (see p. 17), then explained that Britain is "spending till it hurts" to build up "almost terrifying power." This "will not be used for aggression" he promised, will have "a sobering effect on world public opinion." Until the United Kingdom is secure, the Dominions, he hinted, could fend for themselves, be rescued later.

Winston Churchill. "German air power is at least double ours and is being expanded at least double our rate." However, Mr. Churchill, who held Britain's Navy portfolio in the 1914 Cabinet added: "Relative to any navy in Europe today or to likely combination of navies in Europe we are in a far stronger position at sea than we were in 1914."

Chamberlain: "The Government is satisfied we are making the best use of our resources." He went on to reject Labor proposals that the British munitions industry be taken over by the Government, declared: "That would strike a terrible blow at the industry."

Laborite Hastings Bernard Lees-Smith (moving an Opposition amendment of disapproval, which was not expected to pass), "If you flout the League of Nations, you will not secure a united nation to fight a war!"

Chamberlain: "For the preservation of Democracy, which means the preservation of Liberty, I would fight myself, and I am convinced that the people of this country would fight!"

* A major factor is the date at which each of these seven powers began arming at top speed, since obviously those which are catching up now must spend even more frantically than those which have been in the race from the start. /- On April 1, 1937 the British national deficit was $37,037,491,615.

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