IMPERIAL DEFENCE

Evening Post, Volume XCIX, Issue 71, 24 March 1920, Page 5

IMPERIAL DEFENCE

LINKING ARMY AND NAVY

WAR MINISTER'S IDEAL COMMON BODY OF DOCTRINE. (UNITED PXJSS ASSOCIATION. —COISMBHT.) (AIiBTRAIiIAN-NEW ZIALAND CABLE ASSOCIATION.) (Received March 24, 10.30 a.m.) LONDON, 23rd March. During the committee stage .of the debate on the Army Estimates in the House of Commons, several speakers strongly advocated the establishment of a. joint Imperial General Staff to deal with matters relating to the defence of the Empire. Captain Ormsby-Gore suggested that in view of our new commitments under the League of Nations we ought to have new organisations under the War Office ■for the purpose of advising and preparing for the defence of the new territories. Mr. Winston Churchill, Minister for War, pointed out that the Committee of Imperial Defence was a great instrument, by means of which the Prime Minister asserted his-views and exercised responsibility over the whole field of military politics ■ The' Committee of Imperial Defence would certainly endure, but it was a mistake to suppose that any committee could breach the gulf between the services. "If the gulf is to be breached between i the Army and the Navy, it will only be by building up, over a number of years, a breed or brand of officers trained in a common Staff College, where they can acquire a common body of doctrine, dealing with the study of war as a whole." The development of such a body of officers, he said, was far more urgent than any question of unitingthe Ministries under one head. He intimated that as far as the War Office was concerned they would push forward the idea of a joint staff, with a joint staff .college, with the utmost energy.