DUTY TO COUNTRY

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 134, 3 December 1936, Page 14

DUTY TO COUNTRY

"IDEAS WE MOST DESTROY"

A tribute to the efficient way in which Sir Thomas Inskip, Minister for Co-ordination'of Defence, was performing his duties, was paid in the speech of the Secretary for War, Mr. Duff Cooper, at the annual dinner, of the | Lieutenants' Club of the City of London at the Mansion House, says the "Daily Telegraph." The Lord Mayor, Sir, Percy Vincent, presided. . i Mr. Duff ,Cooper was responding to I the toast of the "Imperial Forces of the Crown," proposed by the president, Viscount Wakefield. The Navy, he said, had a great history and great traditions. The Air Force was modern and had ' everything up to date . and a great future. Not the least of the Army's difficulties was that it had a less romantic appeal than the other two arms. . Mr. Duff Cooper said that some :of the new ideas with which they were faced today were ideas which they should do all in their power to destroy. "Personally, I welcome the growth of open opposition to what has hitherto been a platitude, that it is a man's duty to defend his country," he added.

The Secretary for Air, Viscount Swinton, also responded. Lord Wakefield, in proposing the toast, said the subject of Imperial and national defence was no more important than it was a year ago, but decidedly, more urgent. Whether we liked it or not, we found ourselves, by circumstances over which we had no control, committed to re-armament as a national policy, ■;■ ■