DEFENCE OF BRITAIN

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 137, 6 December 1929, Page 11

DEFENCE OF BRITAIN

PLEA FOR CO-ORDINATION

EXPERIENCE IN GREAT WAR

United Press Association—By Electric Teje^

eraph—Copyrizbt

LONDON, 4th December.

In the House of Commons, on a motion by Mr. E. L. Burgin, Liberal member for Luton, calling on the Government to stimulate international action for the comprehensive reduction ot: armaments, expressing the opinion fhat tho country's defences ought to bo co-ordin-ated, Mr. Lloyd George said that he had always strongly favoured the coordination of defence. No Government ever sat down to consider the problem ot defence- as a whole.

DEPARTMENTAL WAR.

How much aid we suffer in the Great War," asked the speaker, "bccauso not merely was a war taking place m Flanders and Gallipoli, but a departmental war was going on at Whitenail. That was far and away the greatest problem with which we had to deal. It would have been far better trom tho viewpoint of efficiency if we Had bad one man iv charge instead of an Admiralty and a War Office grabbing for men and even grabbing in strategy. There was no doubt that when tlio whole story of the Dardanelles was told it would be found that our failuro was largely" due to lack of co-ordination, without blaming anyone in particular. It was pre-eminently a strategical problem, only solvable by perfect harmony and co-ordination between the forces."

Wo could have a far more- efficient defensive force at less cost, ho contiuued, if there were less jealousy amongst the Departments lighting each other. It was something inconceivable that each Department should be milking (he Treasury. This was fatal from the view of economy.

TRIBUTE TO HOOVER.

President Hoover, the first oflicial of a great nation, had tho courage to romind us that men under arms throughout tho world, including active reserves, wore- now ten millions above tho pre-war total. There were far more powerful weapons of destruction in the world now than before tho war.

Mr. Lloyd George asked what the Government was going to do to forcethe League's Disarmament Commission to_ deal with the question. The Commission had done- absolutely nothing. It was a farce. Tho present Government, backed by President Hoover, had the power to insist on something being done.

CHARIOT OF PEACE HELD UP.

"I fool deeply," ho said, "on. the subject as one who has a good deal to do with the manufacture of arms, and signed the disarmament obligations and the Peace Treaty, which all the Allies have trampled on. You aro not going to get peace with millions of armed men. The chariot of peace cannot advance along a road littered with cannon. You must break up the machinery of hatred and convert it to the mechanism of peace and progress." Sir Samuel Hoare (C.) said that Britain had greatly reduced her fighting forces.

Mr. Lloj'd George: "I am glad of the opportunity of admitting that Britain has done more than any other country in this direction."

Sir Samuel Hoarc said that tho limitation of the air forces should bo con fined lo those used for aggressive pur-