EMPIRE DEFENCE.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 March 1920, Page 5

EMPIRE DEFENCE.

NEW SCHEME OF CONTROL GULP BETWEEN SERVICES. By Telegraph.—Press Association. London, March 23. In the. House of Commons, in the committee stage on the army estimates, several speakers strongly advocated the establishment of a joint Imperial General Stall' to deal with matters relating to the defence of the Empire. Captain the Hon. W. Ormsby-Gore suggested that in view of our new commitments under the League of Nations, We ought to have a new organisation Under the War Office' tor the purpose of advising and preparing for the defence of our new territories. Mi. Winston Churchill (Secretary for War), pointed out that the Committee of Imperial Defence was the great instrument by which the Prime Minister asserted his views and exercised his responsibility over the whole field of military politics. The Committee of Imperal Defence would certainly endure, but it was a mistake to suppose that any committee coukl breach the gulf between the services. If the gulf was to be breached between tho army and navy it could only .be by building up over a number of years a breed or brand of officers trained in a common Staff College, where they acquired a common body of doctrine dealing with the study of war as a whole. The development pf such a body of officers was far more urgent than any question of uniting the Ministries under one head. He intimated that as far as the War Office was concerned it would push forward the idea of a joint staff with a joint Staff College with the utmost eneigy.—lmperial Service.