CASE FOR CRITICS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20825, 2 July 1942, Page 4

CASE FOR CRITICS

OUT-DATED WEAPONS LACK OF INITIATIVE CHURCHILL UNDER FIRE (2.30 p.m.) LONDON, July 1. tyben Sir John Wardlaw-Milne was aspect by another member in the House of .Commons to postpone his no-confi-dence motion until the Battle of'Egypt had reached a definite conclusion, the Prime Minister, Mr. Winston Churchill, intervened, stating that as the motion had been the subject of world-wide comment for more than a week, he believed it would he more injurious to delay a decision than to proceed with the debate. in submitting lvis motion, Sir John Wardlaw-Milne said that a strong indenendent man must be given charge of the three services. No Defence’ Minister in full knowledge of the facts as juiown to-day could have made Mr. Churchill’s statement that we were on equal terms with the enemy in Libya. That statement was untrue. What was the Government’s excuse for asking work people to strive to the utmost to produce weapons which already were out-dated? What was the Government’s excuse for sending men into battle with the scalps constantly against them? The "surprise weapon” which knocked out the Allied tanks a few days ago was used against Bilbao in 1937. "Whatever the House of Commons decides, the country will not be satisfied with the present state of affairs," he said. “I have no confidence in the general direction of the war, but if the necessary changes are made Britain’s stability will be unimpaired.” Admiral Sir Roger Keyes, in seconding’ the motion, said that if we had used amphibious power in the winter of 194.0-41 we could have knocked Italy out’of Africa before Germany came to the rescue. Mr. Churchill, at Gallipoli, in Norway, and in the Mediterranean, had, thwarted the carrying out of strokes which might have altered the course of two wars, because his constitutional naval adviser declined to share responsibility with the Admiralty’s failure to provide the Mediterranean Fleet with a naval air force. After nearly three years of war, it 'was inexcusable and intolerable to watch the war machine lumbering from one disaster to another when thousands of fighting men were killed or taken prisoner because they were using inferior equipment.