BRITAIN'S FORCES.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 272, 16 November 1929, Page 9

BRITAIN'S FORCES.

Lords Concerned At Tendency Towards Reduction. EFFECT OF MECHANISATION. (United P.A. —Electric Telegraph—Copyright; LONDON, November 15. In the House of Lords the Earl of Midleton, a former Secretary of State for War, called attention to the reductions in the Army since the war. . He asked if steps were being taken to reduce the civil establishments of the War Office and the Admiralty. TIIO Earl said the Army was now below the level of 1895. The obligations to the Empire could not be discharged by mere study of protocols and a peace conference. In spite of the reductions in the Army and Navy the staffs at the War Office and the Admiralty had been increased. Field-Marshal Viscount Allenby said it was better to be prepared to meet disagreeable and unexpected, happenings than to be forced to improvise at the last moment: Events in Palestine emphasised the danger of optimism, which led to undue reductions. In view of the mandates in Palestine and Iraq Britain must leave adequate forces there. • Earl de la Warr, Under-Secretary for War, in replying, said the previous Governments were responsible for the reductions in the' Army. Changes in material and technical requirements made comparisons between the present and the pre-war costs useless. For instance, mechanisation alone had cost £2,000,000. The cost of the War Office had gradually declined since 1923. The Government was determined to investigate every possibility of saving. Viscount Fitzalari and the Marquess of Salisbury said they thought the reduction in the Army had gone as far as it could with safety. GALE IN BRITAIN. Havoc Wrought Amongst Fishing Fleets. BELIEVED ELEVEN DEAD. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, November 15. . The toll of life taken in Monday's gale cannot yet be fully estimated. It was thought that only three lives had been lost in the disaster to the North Sea fishing fleets, but latest information indicates that there were eleven deaths. Many of the boats engaged now carry wireless sets, and a broadcast warning of the approaching storm enabled some of them to haul in their nets in time. The disaster has not caused a general stoppage of fishing, and many of the boats put to sea on Wednesday. On land great damage has been done by floods, notably in the Rhondda Valley, South Wales. A large part of a hillside at Pontygraitli. gave way-owing to the inundation on Wednesday Fissures sft wide and 70ft long were discovered in the face of the hillside, and a whole mass of thousands of tons of earth moved steadily downwards. Ten families occupying houses in the direct path of the landslide were on Wednesday ordered to leave their houses immediately. A record rainfall for England and Wales was recorded at Pontypridd, where B.3in was registered in 24 hours. On the upper reaches of the Severn two bridges have been destroyed. Heavy losses of livestock and crops are reported from Staffordshire and Lancashire. MASTER CRIMINAL. TWELVE YEARS' SENTENCE. ' SYDNEY, November 15. A notorious criminal, Ernest Martin, 2G, was to-day sentenced to imprisonment for 12 years for robbery under arms, garroting and house-break-ing. The police said Martin had confessed to 300 crimes, of which 82 were robberies of safes. " Mr. Justice Curlewis described him as I a dangerous and useless sort of person.