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New Zealand Times, Volume LI, Issue 11737, 26 January 1924, Page 7

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SERVICE PROPOSALS BUT PRESENT SYSTEM IS INSUFFICIENT. COORDINATION NEEDED. By Telegraph.—Press’ Assn.—Copyright. Reuter's Telegram. DON DON, January 24. The report of a sub-committee of the Imperial Defence Committee, dealing with the co-ordination of the Army, Navy, and Air Force, dismisses as impracticable proposals for subordinating the Ministerial heads of the three services to a Minister for Defence or of amalgamating the three services. NOT ENOUGH. It expresses the opinion that the existing system of co-ordination by the Imperial Defence Committee is insufficient to secure full initiative, and responsibility needs strengthening The report says that the strengthening of responsibility can he effected by the chairman of the committee, who is the Premier’s deputy, being invested with the responsibility for initiating a consistent line of policy directing the common action or the three services, or any two, with the assistance of the three chiefs of staff. INVESTIGATION SHOULD COME. The report recommends that the responsibilities of the Navy and Air Force in regard to the protection of communications in the narrow seas should be further investigated. It says that the principal need as regards cooperation and correlation is closer coordination, and the principle that in all belligerent operations wherein more than one service is concerned, one of the three should be selected as a predominant partner to co-ordinate the others, should be examined by the chiefs of staffs of the three etaffs. The committee agreed that while the menace of attack from the air had greatly increased, necessitating a strong Home Defence Air Fore®, the country’s liability in existing conditions to seaborne invasion bad considerably diminished compared with pre-war standards.