CONDUCT OF WAR

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 47, 25 February 1942, Page 6

CONDUCT OF WAR

DEBATE IN COMMONS

BUREAUCRACY AND EFFICIENCY

(By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.)

(Rec. 2 p.m.)

LONDON, Feb. 24,

During the debate on the war in the House of Commons, Sir P. A. Harris (Liberal), referring to the reported ill-treatment of Britons in Hong Kong, said that if the debate had been secret he would have mentioned the sinister, appalling, and horrible incidents which were reported to be occurring. He was informed that the Government %vas preventing the circulation of these stories because of the bad effect which they might have on morale. If these stories were founded on fact, as he believed they were, they would sooner or later leak out. Nothing destroyed confidence and faith so much as the suppression of news and the attempt to prevent unpleasant things from reaching the people. Major Sir C. F. Entwistle (Conservative) said that much of the country's disquiet was due to extraordinary inefficiency within the bureaucratic machine, as the whole machine was still entangled in red tape. Many men were not worthy of the jobs they held, but apparently it was hard to get rid of them. NEW WAR SECRETARY. Mr. J. Maxton (Independent Labour Party) said that Sir James Griggs's appointment as Secretary of War had introduced into the Civil Service "an element which we have hitherto prided ourselves on keeping out." • Welcoming the new Government, Mr. James Griffiths (Labour) said that recent events had caused grave disquiet accentuated by the widespread feeling' that Britain had not been all out in recent months. "We see slackness, complacency, and a return to normality in our life which is repulsive to the country's best spirit," he said. "If war is to be waged successfully the three Services must be regarded as a whole and not as separate compartments of the war effort. "It is questionable whether the central control of the Air Ministry is adequate. The Army is still overmuch based on 1914 methods —drilling, marching, saluting, and obeying. If we are to win the kind of battles which were fought in, Malaya and Libya we must be trained for a kind of fighting depending on initiative for success and not on blind obedience."