Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. FRIDAY, MARCH 6, 1936. DEFENCES OF BRITAIN.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 123, 6 March 1936, Page 4

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. FRIDAY, MARCH 6, 1936. DEFENCES OF BRITAIN.

It is essential that the relations of our own armed forces to those of other great Powers should be maintained at a figure high enough to enable us to exercise the influence and authority required for the defence of vital British interests and the application of collective security . . . Conditions in the international field have deteriorated. We have really no alternative in the present state of the world but to review our defences and provide the necessary means of both safeguarding ourselves against aggression and playing our part in the enforcement by common action of international obligations.” In these words the British Government, in its White Paper, justifies its action in setting about complete reorganisation and strengthening of the defence forces of Britain. All three arms —the Navy, Army and Air Force —are included in the proposals. To ensure greater co-ordination, the Government recently decided to appoint as deputy-chairman of the Committee of Imperial Defence and its allied organisation, a full-time Minister, who, while not disturbing the fundamental responsibilities that lie with the Prime Minister, will possess wide executive power. Each of the fighting services will still have its own political head. The chief of staff of each will have the dual function of advising his own Minister and of acting as a member of the expert committee free to express military opinion to the co-ordinating bodies. So far as the proposals for strengthening the forces for actual defence are concerned, the most importance attaches to the Air Force, for with the great advance in this arm in other countries, the requirements have undergone a radical change. It can no longer be said that the English Channel constitutes Britain’s great defence. Therefore it is essential that the country should be in a position to repel any aerial invasion or incursion. But while this is so, the claims of the Navy occupy a place only in slight degree inferior to the newest service. With her dependence on seaborne supplies of food, no country in the world has so much need to protect lines of essential communication and trade. So that it is unthinkable that the fleet, with its incomparably vast task of patrolling the highways of indispensable commerce, should be outbuilt, out-armed and out-manned by nations lacking even equal necessity. The need for action in regard to the army is proved by the fact that compared with 1914, the strength has been reduced by no less than 21 battalions of infantry, although the country s peace commitments are greater than ever before. The proposals have generally been regarded as justified, even by foreign commentators, and it is realised that they are to be accepted as precautionary and not provocative.