BRITISH DEFENCE.

Waikato Times, Volume 103, Issue 17365, 29 March 1928, Page 8

BRITISH DEFENCE.

STATEMENT BY PREMIER. CO-ORDINATION OF SERVICESCRITICISM BY LLOYD GEORGE. (Australian and N.Z. Cable Assn.) LONDON, March 28. Continuing the discussion on the third reading of the Consolidated Fund Rill, in which prealer co-ordination of Army. Navy, and Air Force was urged. Mr Raldwin said the war problem was not one of centralisation, but coordinated decentralisation. The Cabinet must he responsible for defence as well as the foreign Imperial poliry. The Imperial Defence Committee, in case of an emergency, could be made the deciding instead of consultative body. Since Lord Curzon's death he harf retained the chairmanship because he recognised that, it was most important, that the Prime Minister must be familiar with defence problems and the, higher personnel of the, services. The committee had been deputed to make detailed inquiries, a sub-com-mittee of which of over fifty were at present sitting. An Imperial Defence College for the training of officers in combined strategy of the Navy, Army and Air Force was remote. He hoped it would be, believed that the Government was not allowing the country to be unprepared- It was keeping in constant view the necessary co-ordinate steps to be taken in case of emergency, of which the Dominions would be kept informed.

Mr Lloyd George said he feared they were not learning the lessons of the last war. From the viewpoint of defence the most decisive disaster of the war was the Dardanelles. It would not have occurred if there, had been one control, and the cost of Flanders would not have been lost, if there had been more complete co-ordination of services. The most important, elements of the Great War were foreign affairs, finance, shipping, manpower, raw material, and the organisation of the whole country and Empire like a huge link, crushing all opposition. What delayed victory was not. the absence of the most perfect, most gallant little army and magnificent, navy, but the lack of equipment. Newlyraised armies needed somebody in supreme control or the same thing would happen again. The present need was a vital minimum force, capable of rapid expansion and equipment when the need arose. The Navy. Army and Air Forres were only branches of the defence, but competition in the three departments resulted in a huge expenditure. If a single Minister was given £100.000,000 yearly and told to organise the whole defence if would be more effective than the present system. He hoped Mr Baldwin would not be content, with the mere suggestion of committee reports, but get someone really able to handle the thing as a whole. A Damning Indictment. Lieut.-Colonel .1. T. Moore-Brabazon said Mr Baldwin's own speech was the most damning indictment of the present, system he had ever heard, and he hoped the Government would undertake henceforth that the Chancellor of the Exchequer would present the service votes as a whole. In further response to the Dardanelles, Mr Lloyd George said there was no co-operation between the Army and Navy at the Dardanelles. There was one Minister in control of one part of the attack and another in control of the other. It was only a question of a few hours at the end- Those hours could have been saved and a great deal more if there had been co-operation, not in the sense of committees to explore the French but comparison in command and direction, and thus the, worst disaster of the war would have been saved. No Overlapping. Commander C. Bellairs, Conservative member for Maidstone, said that if the Ministry of Defence left, the matter te, a free vote of the House it would be carried by an overwhelming majority. The Secretary of State for War, Sir L. Worthington-Evans, in replying, denied that the three departments were careless, overlapping or competing with each other. Where there was a suspicion of duplication the Committee of imperial Defence made an investigation. There was considerable interruption from the Ministerial benches during the Minister's speech, but the Consolidated Fund Bill was read a third time without division.