TRUE BASIS

Northern Advocate, 15 March 1929, Page 7

TRUE BASIS

IMPERIAL STANDARD SPIRIT OP ALL RANKS. SUPERIOR OVER CURTAILMENT. (Australian Press Assn. —United Service.) Received 3.30 p.ra.) LONDON, March" 13. ‘‘The nation wants to do its bit towards ushering in the Millenium. No fair-minded man can doubt, considering the unexampled extent of the ressponsibilities of the Empire, that we have succeeded further than the other Allies,” said General Sir lan Hamilton at the Mayfair Hotel.

“The Imperial forces are being cut downi to the bone. We have surrendered our claim to mastery of the waves and cut dowm army expenditure in seven years by £22,000,000. Aerially, counting heads and machines, w r e are a fifth-rate Pow r er. “Consequently we are gamblimg heavily on our neighbours’ good faith and the good behaviour of our fellow citizens in the Near and Middle East, but the cutting down of our naval and army estimates and the starving of our Air Force have not so far damaged the true basis of Imperial strength, which is the spirit of the officers and men. .

"Instead iof 'being’ discouraged, they have faced, willingly the task of railsing what has been left them to a considerably higher standard of fire and manoeuvre than the numerically more powerful forces formerly possessed.

"Therein lies the best hope for Western civilisation's salvation. Even if the League of Nations’ pacts are based on human frailty and finally break dowm, Providence’s hand -now points to the fact that our future lies in tanks and aeroplanes. Boys must have a chance of running away to the air, as Lord Reading, John Masefield and others ran away to sea. The air binds the. Empire more closeIv than the sea,"