BRITAIN’S DEFENCES

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 62, 6 December 1929, Page 11

BRITAIN’S DEFENCES

NEED OF CO-ORDINATION PROGRESS OF DISARMAMENT STIRRING SPEECH BY LLOYD GEORGE (United Press Association. —By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) (Rec. December 5, 9.30 p.m.) London, December 4. In the House of Commons Mr. A. V. Alexander (First Lord of the Admiralty), in answer to a question, said Britain’s liability for the expenditure on the Singapore Base was only limited by the Dominions’ and Colonies’ contributions. Any additional expenditure, however, must be borne by Britain. Mr. F. Montagu (Under-Secretary for Air) informed a questioner that since the establishment of Imperial Airways, Limited, in 1923 they had had live fatal accidents in which nineteen passengers and nine employees and one civil servant had been killed. Mr. E. L. Burgin (Liberal member for Luton) moved a motion calling on the Government to stimulate international action for the comprehensive reduction of armaments, expressing the opinion that the country’s defences ought to be co-ordinated. Problems of the Great War. Mr. Lloyd George said he had. always strongly favoured the co-ordina-tion of defence. No Government ever sat down to consider the problem of defence as a whole. “How much we suffered in the Great War, because not merely was a war taking place in Flanders and Gallipoli, but a departmental war was going on at Whitehall. That was far and away the greatest problem with which we had to deal. It would have been far better from the viewpoint of efficiency if we had had one man in charge instead of an Admiralty and a War Office grabbing for men and even grabbing in strategy. There was no doubt that when the whole story of the Dardanelles was told it would be found that our failure was largely due to lack of co-ordination, without blaming anyone in particular. It was preeminently a strategical problem, only solvable by perfect harmony and coordination between the forces. We could have a far more efficient defensive force at less cost if there was less jealousy amongst the departments, which were fighting each other. It was something inconceivable tha. each department should be milking the Treasury, which was fatal from the viewpoint of economy. President Hoover, the first official of a great nation, had the courage to remind us that men under arms throughout the world, including active reserves, were now ten millions above the pre-war total. There were far more powerful weapons of destruction in the world now than before the war.”

No Peace with Millions of Armed Men.

Mr. Lloyd George asked what the Government was going to do to force the League’s Disarmament Commission to deal therewith. The Commission had done absolutely nothing. It was a farce. The present Government, backed by President Hoover, had the power to insist on something being done. “I feel deeply on the subject as one who has a good deal to do with the manufacture of arms, and signed the disarmament obligations and the Peace Treaty, which all the Allies have trampled on. You are not going to get peace with millions of armed men. The chariot of peace cannot advance along a road littered with cannon. You must break up the machinery of hatred and convert it to the mechanism of peace and progress.” Sir Samuel Hoare (C.) said Britain had greatly reduced her fighting forces. Mr. Lloyd George: “I am glad of the opportunity of admitting that Britain has done more than any other country in this direction.”

Sir Samuel Hoare said the limitations of the air forces should be limited to those used for aggressive purposes. If the question of air armaments was kept separate, they might at first seek an agreement for Anglo-French-Italian parity. Mr. Alexander, replying to the debate, maintained that no Government had done more to stimulate international feeling on disarmament. The sacrifice of armaments by one country alone would not solve the problem. The solution would be found when all the nations co-operated to reduce armaments to the minimum required to maintain peace. The motion was agreed to unanimously.