UNSOUND EMPIRE DEFENCES

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19750, 17 March 1934, Page 17

UNSOUND EMPIRE DEFENCES

CLOSE INVESTIGATION DEMANDED DISCUSSIONS IN IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT British Official Wireless (Received March 16, 7.0 p.m.) LONDON, March 16. It is understood that a debate Is being arranged in the House of Commons on March 21 to discuss the Empire defences, at which the Government will be pressed to take immediate steps to consult the Dominions, as a result of which it is likely to call a conference in 1934. Many members of the House of Commons are anxious regarding the situation, especially the shortage for the Air Force on the Army Estimates. IMPROVED SERVICES URGED NEED FOR IMMEDIATE COORDINATION United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright (Received March 16, 7.0 p.m.) LONDON, March 16. In the House of Commons during the discussion on the Army Estimates, Wing-Commander A. W. H. James (Conservative) moved that Army training should be in co-operation with the Navy and Air Force. Heut.-Colonel J. T. C. MooreBrabazon (Conservative) advocated a single service of all three forms of defence, on the sea, on the land, and in the air. The Parliamentary Secretary for War (Mr A. Duff-Cooper) has announced a decision to form a new branch of the Territorial Army, to be called the Royal Defence Corps, comprised of recruited men no longer fit for active service, who will he used in an emergency for the defence of vulnerable points in Great Britain such as bridges, factories and arsenals, “not against an enemy attack, but against persons of ill-will and foreign agents inside the country,” thus freeing younger and more active men for other duties. Members of the Labour Party fear that the Corps may be used as a Fascist force, on the model of the Austrian Heimwehr.