STRINGENT STEPS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 86, 8 October 1938, Page 9

STRINGENT STEPS

BRITISH MINISTERS

STRENGTHENING DEFENCES

CO-OPERATION WITH FRANCE

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By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyrigi*. LONDON, October 6.

With Mr. Chamberlain's departure for Berwickshire, where he intends to rest as long as possible, no important political activity is expected for several weeks, but when the House of Commons meets again on November 1 there are certain to bo lively debates, with a searching inquiry into deficiencies of the defence programme and into future foreign policy. In the meantime the Minister for the Co-ordination of Defence, Sir Thomas Inskip, the Minister of. War, Mr. L. Hore-Belisha, and the Minister of Air, Sir Kingsley Wood, are taking stringent steps to strengthen the country's defences. Simultaneously consultations will be held between the high commands of the English and French air forces. Sir Cyril Newall, Chief of Air Staff, and other British officers will arrive in Paris on October 9. , ' The Under-Secretary of the Home Office stated in the House of Commons thait 40,000,000 gas masks had been issued, and that further large deliveries were being received each week. Precautions for the civil population must be carried out thoroughly and must be extended. Business firms who \ had begun schemes for the protection of their employees should press on steadily with them.

The Admiralty is unlikely to remain long without a chief, and the early appointment of a Fiijst Lord of th« Admiralty is expected. Lord Runciman has been among the names mentioned.