PACIFIC DEFENCE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20660, 10 January 1942, Page 7

PACIFIC DEFENCE

CRITICS HIT OUT DEBATE IN COMMONS “POLITICAL BLUNDERS”. (Elec. Tel. Copyright—United Pros a Assn.) (Reed. Jan. 9, 3 p.m.) LONDON, Jan. 8. During the debate in the House of Commons on the war situation, Dr. Haden Guest said: "Our strategy lacks imagination. We cannot afford to concentrate entirely on the war in Europe and leave the war in the Pacific in a subordinate position, because it is as important as anything going on in the west. The recent blunders were essentially political, although the damage is military. One of the greatest blunders is the failure to get India’s 400,000,000 wholeheartedly into the war.” Dr. Haden Guest urged the need for an Empire war council, emphasising the special needs of New Zealand and Australia. Sir . Richard Southby said: “It is utter folly to deny Singapore and its adjacent aerodromes the defences vital to them. Singapore’s peril is peril for New Zealand and Australia. The Government will have to listen to criticism from Australia.”

Co-ordinated Planning Lacking

Sir Percy Harris; “The position in the Far East can be attributed to the absence of co-ordinated planning. There is an inclination to suggest that the Pacific is a secondary theatre of war, but Japan can irreparably damage material possessions and our prestige and relations with the Dominions who came to our help in the darkest hour.”

Advocating an Imperial War Cabinet, Sir Percy Harris declared: “If it was important in the last war, it is tenfold more important now, when the life and dependence of the Dominions is threatened.” Mr. E. L. Granville: “The Washington declaration was welcomed in the press and Parliament, but in the world of deeds it was the Russian cockerel Which isaved the necks of a few chickens. There must be something wrong when Mr. Curtin, the Australian Prime Minister, has communication direct with President Roosevelt. The British Government does not appear to have been in touch with Dominion opinion in the last few months. I have long advocated an Empire War Cabinet, which I am convinced will come.” Difficult to Find Parallel

Lord Addison, in the House of Lords, asked the Government to ascertain who was responsible for the inadequate defence of Penang. He alleged that large amount of valuable stores and even shipping were left behind undamaged for the Japanese. It was difficult to find a parallel for our series of misfortunes in Malaya.

Recalling the optimistic statements attributed to Sir Robert BrookePopham before the Japanese attacked, Lord Addison said: “I do not apologise for my language in saying that f am glad that a nincompoop of this kind was promptly removed from his command and succeeded by Sir Archibald Wavell.”

Lord Strabolgi said that I-long Kong could have been held indefinitely and made a bridgehead for operations. If we had recruited the Chinese, who were British subjects, during the last 2J years we could have raised at least six Chinese divisions. Their munitions could have been manufactured on the spot. Similarly, there were 2,000,000 Chinese in Malaya who hated the Japanese and would have beaten the invaders if they had been recruited. Obviously a great deal was lacking in the civil defence of. Malaya. ____________