DISARMAMENT DEBATE

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 March 1934, Page 7

DISARMAMENT DEBATE

GOVT. POLICY CRITICISED

MR. CHURCHILL’S ESTIMATE

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LONDON, March 14.

In the House of Commons, Mr. Winston Churchill said that it was impossible to expect France to reduce her army to the strength of Poland or of Germany or of Italy, particularly in times like the present. He said; We are only deluding ourselves if we imagine that, because we have increased our Air Force, France will consent to reduce Jiers. The Disarmament Conference has brought us nearer to a pronounced state of European illwill than anything else. It has only

resulted in the re-armament of Germany.

Colonel Wedgwood (Independent) said that Mr. Eden’s speech was out of date. The re-armament by Germany had completely changed the situation. The Continental Powers did not know what was Britain’s policy. The Locarno Agreement gave security for one frontier. Its extension was vitally necessary.

Sir Herbert Samuel drew attention to the cost of the armaments, which cost would preclude all hope of the reduction of taxation, and of improved social conditions. “The revival of German militarism,” he said, “is a tragedy in which all of us might be doomed to take a lamentable part.” Major Atlee (Labour) said that Labpur believed in pooled security, under the League of Nations, but this would

not be obtainable unless the members of the League felt that then* obligations would be fulfilled. Sir John Simon (Foreign Secretary) replying to the debate, said the Government’s opponents must face the alternative that if the disarmament' efforts break down, there would be a scramble in unchecked world wide rearmament. It would be a hundred times better to have a bad agreement than none at all.

Mr. Morgan Jones’s amendment was negatived without a division. The Foreign Office vote was carried.

A BELGIAN APPEAL.

BRUSSELS, March 15.

At the end of the foreign affairs debate, the Senate passed a resolution appealing to the Government to prevent an armament race, and not to collaborate in any policies providing for German re-armament. In the ■event of such re-armament, the Gov'ernment should demand compensatory guarantees of security. Socialists supported the motion.

CO-ORDINATION OF SERVICES.

[official wireless.]

RUGBY, March 14.

Lord Londonderry, replying for the Government in the Lords’ debate on co-ordinating the three fighting services in a Ministry of Defence, said that the plan of control by a single Secretary of State of the two departments, with a deputy in one, was recognised as, a failure and dropped in 1921. A single Minister in peace time would have such multifarious

duties and responsibilities that it would be quite impossible for one man to deal with all the activities involved. There was a definite limit to wise rationalisation, and that, limit would, in his judgment, be passed by any attempt to set up a single Ministry of Defence. In time of war, effective control of the three services would at a very early stage pass beyond the capacity of any single Minister. The appointment, of a Minister superimposed on existing organisation, would weaken the authority of the Ministers at the head of the service departments. After outlining the present organisation and co-ordinating work of the Committee of Imperial Defence, Lord Londonderry said the present system was well suited to the British Constitution, and ensured that the whole situation was continually under review. It was at the present

time achieving one of the essential purposes of any defensive system, namely, co-ordination of the activities of all the departments concerned.

NAVAL MANOEUVRES.

GALE’S TWO VICTIMS.

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LONDON, March 15. A fierce Atlantic gale so battered several of the warships participating in the Fleet manoeuvres off Gibraltar that they were forced to seek port. Two seamen were lost. The weather forbade the “Red” Fleet, representing the British Isles, using its aircraft, against the “Blue” Fleet, representing an imaginary continent south west of the Azores Islands, but the manoeuvres carried on in the teeth of the gale unbl 2.30 p.m. resulting decisively in the favour of the “Red” Fleet, it defeating the “Blue” Fleet’s attempt to secure a base on the Portuguese coast, and so. block the Mediterranean traffic, the “Blue” Fleet having already blocked the Atlantic routes. The “Red” Fleet’s destroyers were the only arm in which it was superior to the “Blue” Fleet.