BRITISH WAR EFFORT

Grey River Argus, 26 February 1942, Page 6

BRITISH WAR EFFORT

Criticism in Commons LONDON, February 24. In the House of Commons, Mr Entwistle said that much of the country's disquiet was due to extraordinary inefficiency within the bureaucratic machine as a whole. The machine was still entangled with red tape. Many men were not worth the jobs they held, but apparently it was hard to get rid of them. Mr Maxton said tnat Sir James Grigg’s appointment introduced the civil service element, which hitherto we had prided ourselves on keeping out. Welcoming the new Government, Mr James Griffiths said: Recent events Rave caused grave disquiet, accentuated by the widespread feeling that we have not been all out in recent months. We see slackness and complacency return to normality in our life, which is repulsive to the country’s best spirit. If the 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 too much based on 1914 methods—drilling, marching, saluting, and obeying. If we are to win the kind of battles fought in Malaya and Libya, men must be trained for the kind of fighting, depending on initiative for success, and not blind obedience,