APPLE OF DISCORD.

Marlborough Express, Volume LXXVI, Issue 250, 23 October 1942, Page 5

APPLE OF DISCORD.

GENERALS AND ADMIRALS DISAGREE. Civilian officials say that the pubiic cannot con'fidently entrust the conduct of the war to military men, declares Mr Walter Lippmann, writing in the New York Herald- Tribune. Military men were unable to agree among themselves on the most vital tactical and strategical problem, and for this reason decisions must be reached hy laymen of trained judgment. "The rivalry between soldiers, sailors, and airmen, both in the United States and Britain is perhaps the outstanding obstacle against effective unity of command in the theatres of war and healthy relations between the Allies. This unresolved struggle for the control of operations, the allocation of equipment and the power of comand is the source of our most serious weakness. "The apple of discord is air power. The advent of the aeroplane obliterated the old clear boundary lines between generals and admirals, resulting in confusion greater for Britain and the United States than for land Powers like Germany, Russia and China. "Only Japan has the same problem. The skill of the Japanese High Command in combining land, air and naval power is clearly one reason for their spectacular successes. "Some extreme air power advocates have harmed their eause by partisan violence and wild, unsubstantiated promises of a quick and easy way to win the war, but the pubiic must not be put off by the bad statement of a good case. The search for the right use of air power in combined operations is erucial in the Anglo -American conduct of the war." — New York P.A. Cable.