IMPORTANT STEP

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 133, 29 February 1936, Page 9

IMPORTANT STEP

Minister to Assist Mr, Baldwin

MATTERS OF DEFENCE Lord Swinton a Possible Appointee (British Official Wireless.) Rugby, February 27. The Prime Minister, Mr. Stanley Baldwin, made an important statement to the House of Commons regarding co-ordination of the defence services. He said it had been decided that while the Prime Minister would retain, as he clearly must, the chairmanship of the Committee of Imperial Defence and of the Defence Policy and Requirements Committee, a Minister would be appointed as deputy chairman of these committees to whom the Prime Minister would delegate the following duties:— 1. General day-to-day supervision and control on. the Prime Minister’s behalf of the whole of the organisations and activity of the Committee of Imperial Defence, and co-ordination of executive action and of monthly progress reports to Cabinet or to any committee appointed by them on the execution of the reconditioning plan. 2. In the Prime Minister’s absence, taking the chair at meetings of the Committee of Imperial Defence and the Defence Policy and Requirements Committee. :. Personal consultation with the chiefs of staffs together, including the right to convene under his chairmanship the Chiefs of Staffs Committee whenever he or they might think desirable. u 4. Chairmanship of the Principal Supply Officers’ Committee. The Prime Minister added that it would -toe the duty of the deputychairman to make such recommendations as he thinks necessary for improving the organisation of the Committee of Imperial Defence. New Organisation. The position of the Chiefs of Staffs Committee would be as follows:—The individuals composing it had a double function, since each advised his own political chief, and acting together the committee preserved the unimpaired tight to submit confidential reports of their collective military views to the chairman or deputy-chairman of the Committee of Imperial Defence. The Minister could recommend any improvement he thought necessary in the organisation of the Committee of Imperial Defence. In any event, and for the purposes of co-ordinated planning, the existing Joint-Planning Committee, which consisted of the directors of plans in the three service departments, would be supplemented by three officers drawn respectively from the Navy, the Army and the Air Force, who would be graduates of the Imperial Defence College. These three new officers would hold official positions on the staffs of their respective departments. Their work in their own departments would be chiefly that of obtaining necessary materials for the preparation of joint plans, but their main work would be on collective plans prepared by the Joint Planning Committee for submission to the Chiefs of Staffs Committee. In addition, steps had been approved for tho strengthening of the secretariat of the Committee of Imperial Defence. Lord Swinton Probable. “The Times” says that Lord Swinton (formerly Sir P. Cunliffe-Lister), who has been named among others for the new post of deputy-chairman of the Committee of Imperial Defence, made, an excellent, impression in the House of Lords by his grasp of the question at issue. The new plan, in the right hands, should ensure better, considered, therefore more economical, defence expenditure. The “Sun-Herald” news agency understands that unless an unforeseen hitch occurs, Mr. Baldwin will appoint Lord Swinton deputy-chairman of the , Committee of Imperial Defence. This will be a whole-time job, involving a Cabinet vacancy. The new Air Minister will shortly be announced. Lord Swinton’s task includes the closest liaison with the Dominions through the High Commissioners, the Foreign Office and defence liaison officers, but the “Sun-Herald” agency learns that Britain’s defence plans, which will be published on March 3, in no way involve co-ordinated action with The Dominions as implied in a reported statement by Mr. F. Jones, New Zealand Minister of Defence, “New Zealand will examine the defence question in the light of Britain’s new proposals which will shortly be received ” However, if the Dominions desire to cooperate they will be welcomed Because British Ministers are convinced tnat the Empire’s future is at stake, necessitating England and the Dominions ultimately co-ordinating their entire defences. Debate in Lords. While Mr. Baldwin was making a statement in the House of Commons on the co-ordination of defence services, an animated debate was opened in the House of Lords by Lord Salisbury, who was apparently in ignorance of it. There has been agitation in some quarters in favour of the appointment of a Minister of Defence to supervise the Navy, Army and Air Force. Mr. Baldwin’s plan meets the problem in a different way. Lord Salisbury condemned the present system as inadequate. Lord Strabolgi, having heard the gist of Mr. Baldwin’s announcement, described it as several steps in the wrong direction. The Minister whom it was proposed bo appoint would have no real power and would be a sort of shadow of the Prime Minister. The Labour Party’s attitude was that it wanted efficient defence forces without unnecessary expenditure or overlapping. It believed that this could bo achieved only by co-ordination. The great majority of the Labour Party were prepared to support Britain in a war for her own defence and to support the principle of collective security.

Lord Swinton said that a Ministry of Defence would be impossible in peace time because no single Minister could undertake the vast work which each Minister would have to discharge in coming months and years. It would be equally impossible in war time, when responsibility must rest with the Prime Minister and War Cabinet. It was essential that the Committee of Imperial Defence should centre on the Prime Minister, who should never lose contact with it. Plans must be ready to ensure that industrial firms were able to turn rapidly to war production. Lord Salisbury, winding up the debate, said he was satisfied with the position so long as the Prime Minister had an operative Minister working beside him.