THE DEFENCE OF FREEDOM

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23221, 19 June 1937, Page 4

THE DEFENCE OF FREEDOM

LIDDELL HART’S NEW WORK “ Europe In Arms.” By Liddell Hart. London: Faber. 19s 6d. Mr Liddell Hart, the author of “Europe in Arms,” is a well-known authority on all things military, and this, his latest work of military science, should enhance his reputation to a considerable extent. He displays a wide knowledge of the events that are taking place in the world to-day, and places on them an intelligent interpretation. One of the outstanding points that arise from his book is his cry against the stubborn, obstinate conservatism of those who direct the British defence policy in refusing to recognise the trend that modern warfare must take. One section of the book is

■devoted entirely to the subject of British defence forces. Mr Liddell Hart pleads for the reform that an intelligent study of what he terms the “ science of war ” . would necessarily bring about. One of the factors he stresses most forcibly is the need for the mechanisation of the army—to give it a “ flexible mobility.” For this purpose, he advocates the wider use of tanks artd armoured cars, and to man them he sugggests a special recruiting scheme that is both novel and engaging in its nossibilities. He discounts the use of the big battalions as self-abortive—the vulnerability to air attack both of themselves and of their communications would render them useless from a tactical point of view. Quality, combined with the time factor, rather than quantity, would be of telling advantage in the next war. Mr Liddell Hart advances several intelligent theories and suggestions, such as the formation of a conjoint Ministi’y of Defence, presided over by a civilian chairman, to strike the balance between the necessary differences that must arise in a combined council of Army, Navy, and Air Force. The author deals with the significance of such recent hapoenings as the Abyssinian War. the resultant naval question in the Mediterranean, the Spanish Civil War. and matters of such vital interest as the wisdom of the building of big battleships in the face of such dangers from sea and air as now confront them.

To ,go fully into the matter of the book is. however, impossible, the foregoing facts being the merest taste of what "there is to be found in it. It is written in an interesting, lucid style, and though not exactly comforting to read, it gives one no small reason for hope to know (according to Mr Liddell Hart, at any rate) that another war may produce the collapse of attack before the collapse of civilisation, and that a sense of the ridiculous may bring the warring peoples to their senses before they can renew the war effort. D. S. F.