Returning to the subject of the huge Jrearmament expenditure programme, Mr. Chamberlain said:
"These huge figures will serve to bring home to us all the immensity Jof our financial resources, which wilt ible us not only to find such colossal sums, but to contemplate their ex penditure without any appreciable disturbance in the confidence which the basis of our financial credit.
"And when we reflect that what we Jare now considering is the effort of this country alone, without taking Jany account of the contribution which could be made, if the need arose, by the great Dominions or by our airies Jand friends outside the British Empire, we may feel, in the words of Jour own Shakespeare, Come the three Jcorners of the world in arms, and we shall. shock them:
"Edo not speak these words in any boastful, still less in any aggressive spirit. 'Our armaments threaten no Jone, nor have we any thought but of friendliness "to any" people in' the Need to Remove Fear "My own most earnest desire in life to see the establishment of po: and of confidence that it can served. I believe that as soon as a substantial measure of that confidence Jean be achieved, it will be possible to set about the task of disarmament, bby, general agreement.
""No country embarks on this ruin-lous form of expenditure for the fun Jot the thing. They do it because they Jare afraid of what miy happen 10 them if they disarm, Remove that will follow 'Mr. Chamberlain dealt at length with the unemployment position in Lancashire, ascribing as the principal Jreason for' the present situation the Jdevelopment of foreign competition. especially in the East and the Far faust. He thought they could never hope to Fecover the position in the world cotton trade that they formerly' held, but that did not mean that they were going to fold their arms and do nothing more.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.