CONDUCTING THE WAR

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 January 1941, Page 6

CONDUCTING THE WAR

BRITISH PRIME MINISTER'S SUR\E\

CABINET ORGANISATION

EXPANSION OF THE ARMY .Biiti-h ilmeial Wireless.’ 'Received This Day. 11.10 a.mJ RUGBY. January 22 Making a statement in the house of Commons on manpower and production, the Prime Minister I i.Mr ChurchilD submitted to the House the main ideas he had formed upon machinery for conducting [ the war. Mr Churchill said he had j reached the conclusion that in the I present circumstances a War Cabj inet composed of four or five men, freed from departmental duties, would not give the best results. ! Having viewed such a system from i close quarters in the last war, he did I not think it was altogether what it j was represented to be. and he thought I it better that the centre of the Gov- | eminent should consist of some key . Ministers —stflth as the Minister of Lai hour and Aircraft Production, with the ' Foreign Secretaiw and Chancellor of the Exchequer always in attendance. The three Service Ministers were represented by himself as Defence Minister. Explaining to the House this system of a direction Cabinet, with two Executive Committees of Ministers carrying out supply policy and effecting the actual woking of war activities. Mr Churchill said: "After all. the House has laid upon me the responsibility and I have a right to be judged by results. So far as the results have gone up to ‘ the present, they have given satisfaci tion to all concerned and a number of very important practical decisions have been taken by the speedy and unanimous agreement of the parties concerned. and immediate action has been taken by the parties who serve them.” Turning to the question of manpower, Mr Churchill said the size of the Army lay at the root of this matter. Although the Navy and R.A.F. had gi- ■ gantic needs, the great consumer of manpower was the Army. The size of the Army was settled within a few weeks of the outbreak of war. That decision had not been altered except to the extent of providing equipment for ten more divisions. The scale of the Army was the same as that in November. ui:;f>.

"I :-m not going to say how many divisions it amounts to." Mr Churchill i added, "but it is i very large and fori midable force, both for fighting overi seas and for the defence of these isI lands." i "Counting the Home Guard. Mr Churchill added. "we have about four million armed men. When this scale was fixed a vast series of factories were set on foot, sufficient to provide such an army with all the equipment required in continuous action on the

Continent against the Germany Army The bull; of the new plant is just coming into production. There are several hundred thousand more workers employed now in munitions and aircraft production than was the case in July. J 918.

‘I have kept myself constantly informed of the groat, tide of new factories rising to productive level. 1 say that in tiie next six months we shall have, for the first time, an intense demand tin manpower and womanpower. This is the problem that lies before US. Wo are now about to enter for the first time in this war on a period of manpower stringency because for ’lie first time we are coming to have the apparatus and layout which this manpower and womanpowvr will require to handle. "After sixteen months of war with <1 very great Stale armed with the mo: deadly weapons," said Mr Churchill. "not more than sixty thousand British people have lost their lives by enemy action and nearly half of those were civilians “Far be it from me to paint a rosy picture of ‘he future.— I do not think we should be justified in using any but sombre tones and colours while our people and our Empire, and indeed the whole English-speaking world, is passing through a dark and oeadly valley.: But I should be failing in my duty on the other side if I were not to convey to the House many true impres-sions-—namely. that this great nation has got into its war stride. It is ac- : complishing the transition from the I days of peace and comfort to those of supreme, organised and indomitable exertion. Still more should I fail in my duty if I were to suggest that the future, with all its horrors, contained 1 any elements which justified despondency or despair. I have no doubt that the House, in its overwhelming majority, will wish us its tribute of encouragement, as wed as its dose of correction, and will lend its own heave of loyal strength to the forward surges lhat have now begun." NO VOTE TAKEN MANPOWER £■ PRODUCTION j DEBATE ■ tw,, j Thn [!..■■ 15 pm LONDON January 22 The H- m ■ >-! Cmrnitmm- dvn.-J- ■ ’ , , > ■■■ (tuft■ r- : m - , „• • vote imm;: :.j< i: