EMPIRE DEFENCE

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 17, 21 January 1927, Page 9

EMPIRE DEFENCE

ARMY AND DOMINIONS

STRENGTHENING THE TIES

(From Our Own Con eiponderit.)

_, • LONDON, 15th Dec. ti-n -, mihtarv corespondent of the -Uaily Telegraph" writes:— "The ties between the Army at Home and the Dominion Forces, and their future co-operation, should be greatly strengthened by Canada's selection of. one of her chief officers to be a student at the Imperial Defence College. I understand that hexDeputy Chief of the General Staff, Colonel (Hon. Brigadier-General) A. G. L M'Naughton, C.M.G., D.5.0., is coming to attend the first course at the newlyfounded Imperial Defence College, in Buckingham Gate, which opens on Ist January. An artillery officer, who won distinction in the war, he is also of high, academic attainments, and is M.Sc. and LL.D. of M'Gill University. His youth also—he is only 39—is an asset,- for elasticity of mind is vital in such a new venture as the Imperial Defence College and the virgin ground which they will have to explore." "The Times" says that one of the, students joining the Imperial Defence College next month for a year's study in the higher strategy of Imperial protection has written a paper which has drawn considerable attention. The officer is Lieut.-Colonel B. H. Haining, of the Eoyal Artillery. He considers that the only way to deal with possible contingencies in different parts of the Empire is to have- some form of Imperial local reserves in each dominion and colony which would bo available for immediate dispatch. ' The nearest dominion would thus deal with any local trouble and obviate the delay caused by long sea voyages by British oxIndian troops. Lieut.-Colonel Haining indicates a more important Indian part in the general scheme of Imperial defence.

The reference made in the recent statement on defence to the selection of an Australian officer to command the 2nd Cavalry Brigade for a training period has interested the Army from the point of view of the ■ more free interchange of commands between the various services (says "The Times"). The officer selected is Brevet-Colonel W. J. Poster, C.8., C.M.G., D.5.0.; who is serving in the department of the Chief of the Australian Staff (Lieut.-General Sir H. G. Chauvel) as Director of Military Operations and Intelligence. He is an officer of the Australian Light Horse, was a brigade major with the Australians in Prance and the Mediterranean, and served also with the mounted troops in Egypt. He will come to Salisbury Plain for the 1027 training season, and temporarily, tako over from Colonel Commandant B. D. Fisher the 2nd Cavalry Brigade, which will then consist of the 7th Hussars, the 16/sth Lancers, and the 3/6 th Dragoon Guards. It may be recalled that Colonel E. H. Davies was sent from rJew Zealand in 1910 to take over the 6th Infantry Brigade at Aldershot and took it to Prance, afterwards coming on the British establishment as a major-general. The number of overseas officers coming to England for training purposes is to be increased, and the Army Council plan of affiliating oversea units to British Army regiments, now in course of completion, will provide a basis for this attachment both at Home and in India.