WAR ON LAND

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 November 1939, Page 5

WAR ON LAND

BRITISH ORGANISATION IN FRANCE MR HORE-BELISHA’S REVIEW. WORKING PLANS OF VAST SCOPE. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 11.15 a.m.) RUGBY, November 22. In a statement in the House of Commons on the progress of the war on land, the Secretary for War (Mr HoreBelisha) described it as a fortress war. Referring to the fact that the Polish Army is now being resuscitated on friendly soil, he said the cause which they were so resolute to vindicate attracted, like a magnet, their countrymen in all parts of the world. Since he had informed the House that Britain had 158,000 men in France, some thousands had followed ‘them. By the spring they would have been reinforced again by no inconsiderable armament. So it would continue until the cause was won. Nearly a million men were under intensive training in Britain. Our defences By sea, land and air and the barriers against aggression established by prevision and the provision of underground accommodation and its closely emplaced batteries of guns extended along 200 miles of frontier. Whereas Germany had to defend 200 miles of frontier. France had to envisage the possibility of aggression by Germany along 800 miles, from the North Sea to the Alps. We now shared the task. There were French troops in the British part of the line and British troops in the French part. Understanding and good relations were complete. The sector at present allotted to the British Army, while not comparable with the major system of the Maginot Line, was thus fortunately provided in advance with field works. The task which fell to our soldiers on arrival was to add to and improve upon these, which they were undertaking with a will. An organisation of almost inconceivably great dimensions had been established. The food, clothing, equipment, correspondence and amusements of a whole community were distributed over a distance of hundreds of miles. In the initial stages, the British Expeditionary Force consumed 500 tons of petrol daily. Now alternative bases had been established, additional locomotives would be imported and a permanent way laid. Still it was a question of vehicles and more vehicles. We had already sent to France over a thousand tons of spare parts and accessories