UNITY OF COMMAND

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 24, 29 January 1942, Page 8

UNITY OF COMMAND

MUCH ACHIEVED

SOUTH-WEST PACIFIC-

HELP FOR AUSTRALIA AND 'N.Z.

(Rec. 1 p.m.) RUGBY, Jan. 29. A large unity of command had been secured in the South-west Pacific, stated Lord Moyne, Leader of the House of Lords, in the course of a speech in the Lords. Everything possible was being done to help Australia and New Zealand in their time of need and help them to resist Japanese attacks in case they should come on to the mainland.

When Japanese aggression developed, he added, it was immediately met by a plan of reinforcements which had been carefully worked out in advance, and the effect of that action was already showing itself. From the time when the first ship reached Singapore with Hurricanes only 48 hours elapsed before the first of these were in the air ready for battle. The Prince of Wales and the Repulse had been spared from the heavy burden of the Atlantic battle and sent out to do duty in the Pacific at the request of the Dominions concerned. ALLIED SEA POWER. The loss inflicted on Japan in the Macassar Straits by the Netherlands East Indies and the United States light forces and submarines showed that Allied sea power was already recovering from the shock of initial disaster. Referring to the criticism of the conduct of the campaign in Malaya, Lord Moyne refuted a suggestion that those who should have take© the situation in hand were the first to leave. Many leading Europeans, he said, headed by Dr. Evans, chief medical officer of Penang, stayed behind to look after the population and tend the wounded.

He could give many instances of devoted and courageous work done bymembers of the Malayan Administration who stayed at their posts and in many cases paid for their devotion with their lives. He thought the Governor and the Colonial Service had been very unfairly treated. It seemed ungrateful under present conditions to attack Malaya, Lord Moyne concluded. Viscount Bennett, former Prime Minister of Canada, in his maiden speech in the Lords, expressed the hope that an Imperial War Cabinet would immediately come into being as a matter of course in order that the vast overseas Dominions might be able to find representation in it. MALAYAN CIVIL SERVICE. Tribute to the Civil Service in the Malayan war meanwhile was paid by the Colonial Under-Secretary in reply to a question in the House of Commons. The rapid Japanese advance through northern and central Malaya, he said, had led of course to quite abnormal conditions and in such circumstances it would indeed be surprising if some mistakes had not been made. He was satisfied that the Civil Service in Malaya had acquitted itself with ability and devotion, and no doubt they would continue to play with credit their part in the battle of Malaya. ______