EFFORT FOR VICTORY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 December 1940, Page 8

EFFORT FOR VICTORY

FULL USE OF BRITAIN’S RESOURCES DEMANDED IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. SIR J. ANDERSON REPLIES TO CRITICISMS. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, Noon.) RUGBY, December 4. In the resumed Address-in-Reply in the House of Commons, speeches were heard from back benchers, almost all devoted to urging the Government to take more .drastic action in mobilising the entire resources of the country for victory. Earl Winterton expressed disappointment at what, he considered the failure of the Government spokesman to give a convincing answer to criticisms voiced earlier in the debate. There was a general desire, he said, to see Britain take the offensive in the field, but the real offensive must first take place in factories and shipyards. Earl Winterton urged also the vital importance of harnessing the resources of India and Africa to provide supplies for the Middle East campaigns. At Home he advocated compulsory measures for the control of resources and transference and training of manpower.

Mr Seymour Hicks (Labour) agreed that on the home front they must strip to' the waist for victory and echoed a demand frequently heard in the course of the debate for constant and vigorous attack against Italy. Mr E. G. Buchanan (1.L.P.) expressed the view that a military victory by Germany was impossible and by Britain it was also-impossible. He said the sooner there was a negotiated peace the happier he, as a pacifist, would be. Mr Vernon Barlett (Ind.) said there had never been a war since the Crusades in which the moral factors were so much on the one hand and the material factors on the other. He stressed the importance —in view of having this moral claim to world sympathy—of making sure that they secured the support to which they were entitled by a clear declaration of war aims. Sir J. S. Wardlow Milne (Con.) said he was not satisfied that the full industry of the country was yet being thrown'into the struggle. He asked for the drastic taxation of private incomes in support of the war effort. Sir J. Anderson. Lord President of the Council, warned members against seeking immediate at the expense of the systematic development of productive capacity. The frill weight of Britain’s effort would in due time be brought to bear crushingly on the enemy. Taking up Earl Winterton's point, he called attention to the recent successful conference al Delhi. The recommendations had just become available to Britain, Which could come to a decision with the least possible delay. Dealing with the defence of shipping and oversea communications, especially on the western approaches to Britain, Sir J. Anderson said Mr Churchill himself, with unrivalled experience, was giving this constant attention as chairman of the Defence Committee to these problems, and the Government and its technical advisers were leaving nothing undone to find an early and effective solution.