Washington, Jan. 12.
ITING threats of war and aggression rumbling throughout the world, President Roosevelt in his defence message to Congress aday asked Federal legislators to authorize a special $525,000,000 mergeney defence programme.
The requested appropriation was tar below expectations in many quarters where estimates of thi most of the Administration's defence programme had run as high as 82,000,000, 000.
The President's eagerly awaited message to Congress specifically urged that the requested appropriation be made available as "speedily as possible" to enable the Government to launch the naval and aircraft building programme immediately.
He said the Administration planned to speed $210,000,000 of the appropriation in the 1940 fiscal year.
The President said special emphasis would be given to bolstering the aviation forces of the Army and Navy. The Army, he said, intends to establish a lump sum of $300,000,000 for the production of military planes.
He did not recommend the exact number of planes contemplated under this programme.
The President indicated that aircraft orders from the Army and Nay: would put the American aircraft industry on a mass production basis, one of the main objectives of the Administrations defense programme.
The Presidents recommendations were considered in line with the recent Lindbergh report which stated that Germany's air force was larger than any other nation's on earth and included better planes than possessed by any nation with the possible exception of the United States.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.