DEFENCE CO-ORDINATION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22356, 29 February 1936, Page 12

DEFENCE CO-ORDINATION

To secure greater defence coordination the British Government has decided to appoint as deputychairman of the Committee of Imperial Defence and its allied organisation, a full-time Minister, who, while not disturbing the fundamental responsibilities that lie with the Prime Minister, will possess wide executive power. Each of the fighting services will still have its own political head. The chief of staff of each will have the dual function of advising his own Minister and of acting as a member of the expert committee free to express military opinion to the co-ordinating bodies. The new system has already received approval and condemnation. There is little doubt that Parliament will support it by a large majority as an aid toward efficiency and as a means of preventing expensive overlapping. But such questions are alwr.ys a battle-ground of debate, not eolely because there are strong protagonists for each of the services, but also because the risks of modern war grow with the invention of new arms. The rivalry that exists in some minds over the respective demands of the naval and the air forces is itself one of the best reasons for the coordination scheme. Britain is in no mind to tinker any further with defences. The disarmament example has failed completely. War is a possibility ; it even threatens. The country, indeed the whole Empire, is ready to spend heavily in restoring the defences as a safeguard and as a hope of restraining the potential aggressor. But there is a demand louder than ever before that there should be wise spending and the creation of an organisation which, if war comes, can turn industry to war supply purposes without confusion and delay. The new j system is simply the application of lessons learned dearly in the past. i