OFFICIAL INQUIRY URGED

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 191, 9 May 1940, Page 9

OFFICIAL INQUIRY URGED

Conduct Of Campaign LEADERSHIP WITH FIGHTING SPIRIT (British Official Wireless and Press Assn.) LONDON, May 7. Lord Winterton (Conservative) in the debate in the House of Commons said that if the situation in Norway was as grave as was feared, a committee should be appointed and empowered to examine military and civilian officials to discover the cause of the setback. Mr. Arthur Greenwood (Labour) said that the people of the country would face all the sacrifices they were called upon to bear, but they would not tolerate lack of bold and effective leadership. Should there lie confused counsels, inefficiency, and wavering, other men must be called to take the place of the leaders who had failed -the country, said Mr. Greengood. Increasing numbers were becoming more and more disturbed at the direction of the war. “Is it not a case,” ho proceeded, "that this Norwegian episode, inadquately and unconvincingly explained by Mr. Chamberlain, has profoundly shocked people in every constituency in Britain? Because of Jack of direction by the Government, the Press led the public to believe that we were winning magnificent victories.” Mr. Greenwood said he feared the effect on other neutral countries. Britain’s pride had been humbled not through defects of the fighting men, but through the defects of those responsible for the supreme direction of the war. Hitler might strike again. Were plans ready to deal with that or were they to be as defective or as disastrous and humiliating as, in the Norwegian episode? Wars were not won by masterly evacuations. Blunder by Hitler. At the same time, Mr. Greenwood expressed his personal view that from a military viewpoint this adventure might be Hitler’s downfall and might be regarded as a capital blunder. He believed Hitler had broken Ills fleet and lost more men than Britain. Criticism, however, iu the House. Mr. Greenwood added, in wartime and in this particular was the one weapon the people must maintain to prevent the Government going wrong.

“If this House feels that the prosecution of the war is not effective and does not say so,” he said, "it is playing into the hands of the enemy far more effectively than any disturbance in this House. We are not seeking a narrow party advantage out of this. The fact is that there is deep, bitter, and growing dissatisfaction with the major direction of (he war. The responsibility lies with Mr. Chamberlain and his colleagues, and the responsibility for any change lies not with the minority, but with the majority, who have an even greater responsibility now.” Colonel J- C. Wedgwood (Labour) said that one lesson from the Norwegian experience was that the fleet could save Britain fro.m starvation but not from invasion. Apparently the Government was not prepared to combat invasion, which was easier now than in 1914. “We need all the help we can get,” he sai'd, “and the sooner we get Russian or American aid the belter. 1 hope we may get a Government which will take the war seriously. We must use the lightning stroke, the essence of which is doing something illegal and 'unexpected.” Lack Of Flam Mr. L. 8. Amery (Conservative), asked who had countermanded the hammer blow against Trondheim, and added that there was clearly no plan for meeting the Norwegian invasion. “The whole conduct of the war,” he said, “calls for searching inquiry. (Cheers). Nothing in the I’rime Minister’s speech suggested that the Government had fore-knowledge or any clear decision after the German invasion for consistent and swift action throughout, the whole lamentable affair.

“We must have a supreme war directorate of a handful of wen free from administrative routine. Somehow or other we must get a Government with fighting spirit.” Mr. Amery said that tiie war was not run by shirking risks. Trondheim held by the British would have made Norway for Hitler what Spain was for Napoleon. Urging that the time bad come when the Opposition party must take its share of the national responsibility, Mr. Amery said that the organization and power and influence of the trade unions could not lie left outside. There .must now be a real national Government.