SENT TO PACIFIC

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 24, 29 January 1942, Page 7

SENT TO PACIFIC

Empire Reinforcements

AREA GIVEN PRIORITY

LONDON, January 28. It is officially stated that reinforcements have been sent to the Pacific, that more are to follow, and that the war with Japan has priority in the Allied Councils.

When Mr. C. R. Attlee, Lord Privy Seal, replied to some of the points made in today's House of Commons debate' he said, "Reinforcements were sent on their way to the Far East at the earliest possible moment, though of course we cannot say what they were. "They were drawn from those places, and from those troops, which were most readily available, and other troops and reinforcements are being sent; but we must remember the long distance that has to be covered and the limit of our shipping capacity and our escort capacity." Lord Moyne, Leader of the House of Lords, gave an assurance on behalf of the Government that in the Allied Councils today priority was being given to measures against Japan.

In the House of Commons, Mr. Attlee moved the motion of confidence, which read: "That this House has confidence in his Majesty's Government and will aid it to the utmost in the vigorous prosecution of the war." Sir John Wardlaw-Milne (Conservative) supported the vote of confidence. He said the British people were behind any Government that, would fight the war to a finish, but that did not mean that the House was thoroughly satisfied with the present Government and every member of it. He complained that there had been complacency in the Far East and that after two and a half years of war we had not been able to equip 60,000 troops in Singapore. The country had been misled by inaccurate statements and had a right to know what the circumstances were. The House was proud of the Prime Minister but was a little afraid he was carrying a burden beyond the powers of any one man. One Conservative member suggested that the Prime Minister should appoint a deputy to take charge of the

defence committee and thus be relieved of some of his burden. LEADER'S COLLEAGUES. Mr. Beverly Baxter (Conservative) was critical of Mr. Churchill's defence of his colleagues. The Prime Minister, he said, had produced an umbrella far bigger than Mr. Chamberlain's. Mir. E. Shinwell (Labour) suggested that although i vote of confidence in Mr. Churchill was certain, a separate vote of confidence in his colleagues would be decisively defeated. In the House of Lords the debate on the South-west Pacific was begun by Viscount Bennett, a former Prime Minister of Australia. He said we should have begun to take action when Japan entered Indo-China, as it was apparent she intended to strike. "One squadron of American planes at Darwin today would be worth 10 times that amount a year from now, and one American division landed in Australia would be worth two or three corps in a year's time," he said. Lord Chatfield declared that no one man should have responsibility for a war of this magnitude and suggested there should be a separate Minister of Defence. The sending of the Prince of Wales and Repulse to Singapore without a proper escort must have been a political and not a naval decision, he said.