THE BRITISH ARMY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18802, 3 March 1923, Page 7

THE BRITISH ARMY

EFFORT TO INCREASE RESERVE; ■ ree» Association—By TVegrapb—Copyright LONDON, March 1, The War Office is making a strenuous effort to increase by 10,000 the regular army reserve, which now totals only 70,000. It is offering ex-service men wbq join Is daily.—A. and N.Z. Cable. THE MIDDLE EAST. SUPPLEMENTARY ESTIMATES. NO REDUCTION IN FORCES.. LONDON, March L The House of Commons debated 1 tha Supplementary Estimates of £813,000 for the Middle East. Mr W. Onnsby-Gc>rei (Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies) explained that there had been no reduction in the forces owing to tha Turkish situation. It would be' contrary to the public interest to state tha distribution and number of the British forces in the Middle Eastern theatre until they knew the way the Lausanne decision would go. Whether we were going to remain in Irak or not we were not ■ going out at the point of the Turkish bayonet.—(Cheers.) Air G. Lambert protested against the expenditure in Irak and Mesopotamia, He said we must come out of the coup; try. He therefore moved a redaction ini the vote.—A. and N.Z. Cable. • (Received March 2, at 8.50 p.m.) Mr J. S. W. Milne opposed the with; drawal of the troops. He said it wan not reasonable to expect the Arabs to> rebuild in four years what civilisation had destroyed. He could not see any peace with Turkey that would enable us to walk out of Mesopotamia. Mr J, C. Wedgwood admitted Mesopotamia in time might prove a valuable asset to the Empire, but ha questioned whether we could afford the outlay now.. -- Sir S. Hoare, replying to the debate, said that the British staff were satisfied that the air dispositions were wise. It would be . improper to say more with peace hanging in the balaAe. He would support the air lore?. until peace was made with Turkey, and until the House of Commons' endorsed the withdrawal qf the troops. Mr Ormsby-Gore reiterated Mr Bonar taw’s declaration that we would with* draw as soon as it was consistent with' our honour, which was not yet. A bag and baggage policy was' impossible at the present. He deplored certain speeches in the Commons which were reported to Angora and used by the Russians to bring pressure on the Turks to do all possible to damage the British Empire. Britain was pledged to remain ■ in Mesopotamia until the independent Arab State became a member of the League of Nations. Britain wanted qeaco with dignity. All the questions were being examined by a committee, I .ad* vised by Lieutenant-colonel Cox. The vote was agreed to by 268 vbtoi to 144.—A. and N.Z. Cable.