AGITATION FOR DEFENCE MINISTRY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17836, 3 May 1926, Page 8

AGITATION FOR DEFENCE MINISTRY.

SIR JOHN DAVIDSON MAKES STRIKING SPEECH.. (Special to the “ Star.”) LONDON, March 26. The letter in “The Times” signed by General Sir John Davidson, M.P., and other service members has undoubtedly given expression to a feeling widespread not only at St Stephens but throughout the country. Sir John, who was one of the most brilliant officers of the war, made the most Striking speech in the debate on the services, declaring that if next year the 117 millions spent on the services were not substantially reduced, he would vote against the Estimates. If we did expend £117,000,000 we ought, he said, to get better value for the money. There was a leakage and it was in overlapping and waste as between the three forces—not in any particular service. He was not in favour of jumping straight into a Minister of Defence. We had to feel our way, but we were feeling our way altogether too slowly. If the Colwyn’s Committee’s report was not to be produced, they would draw their own conclusions as, to the reasons. He was very suspicious , that the committee had reported adversely .upon the Admiralty and the War Office.

A PROPER BALANCE. Sir John explained in the joint letter he and his service colleagues sent to “ The Times ” that while there would be a widespread desire for co-ordina-tion, the time is hardly ripe for a Ministry of Defence, but a Ministry of this character must be evolved gradually. In the meantime the first step should be to set up a special section of the general staff of three services, who would work together with a view to securing a proper balance between them, achieving economy and eliminating overlapping and waste. The three chiefs of the staff should each share a common responsibility in signing votes A of all three services. It is reasonable to assume that with proper and economical correlation, the sum of £117,000,000 to be spent on defence could be better expended, and might produce greater power, or alternatively that the existing power and efficiency of our defence might be produced at a smaller cost.

In his speech in the House Sir John elaborated his suggestion that there should be a combined general staff to consider joint questions: There were for example, 250,000 acres of land administered by the three services, and the cost of administration alone, apart from buildings, amounted to between £40,000 and £50,000 a 3-ear. Unless next 3-ear there was a plain, straightforward statement in regard to Imperial defence as a whole preceding the presentation of the .separate estimate, he would not conscientiously be J able to vote for these large sums. VALID REASONS. Sir Roland Bourne, formerly permanent head of the South African Defence Department, suggests with his experience in Stud> r ing defence organisations and assisting to build up and administer one on a small scale, that “ just as it is unnecessar> r to provide the Army organisation with separate Ministeries for the three “ arms,” artilier\% cavalry and infantry respectively, so there are no really valid administrative reasons for having separate Ministries for the three major service^.’’ Sir John Davidson, with the suaviter in modo method, takes the view that a Ministry of Defence will in all probability of necessity qome in time, and goes on to say: “ The same principle might then be extended to other State Departments, as, for example, the establishment of a Ministry of Imperial Affairs divided into three- sections — India, the Dominions, and the Crown Colonies. The adoption of this proposal would, moreover, have the advantage of reducing the size of the Cabinet. They believed that sufficient weight of argument had been forthcoming in recent debates to just if 3*' the Government in setting up a Royal Commission on the subject with a view to devising the best machineo' for the co-ordination of the three services.” DOMINIONS CONCERNED. The fact that Mr Churchill seems content to stabilise f&e Budget at £800,000,000, and is unabashed at having been beaten by the senior services so long as it allowed him » chance to pick up 6d, has brought the question of co-ordination to a head. And since this is the subject which the dominions are more vitalh' concerned with than any of the Imperial Parliament exercises Certain influence, Sir Job* l Davidson’s view should be widely broadcast. “It should be remembered that the Imperial Conference will assemble in October, when questions 01 such paramount importance as the problem of Imperial defence will co^ e up for discussion, and undoubtedly well-defined views on this subject would be of material assistance to the delegates in arriving at their decisions.