WORKING WELL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 October 1941, Page 5

WORKING WELL

jt> BRITISH ORGANISATION IN MIDDLE EAST STATEMENT BY MR LYTTELTON IN COMMONS. SERVICE CHIEF RELIEVED OF EXTRANEOUS DETAIL: (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.50 a.m.) RUGBY, October 2. Mr Oliver Lyttelton, Minister of State in the Middle East, made a statement’ in the House of Commons regarding the organisation he had set up and gave details of the Middle Eastern War Council, of which he is chairman. The council consists of the British Ambassador to Cairo, the command-ers-in-chief of the three services and an Intendant-General. The Ambassador in Bagdad, the High Commissioner to Palestine, the Governor of Cyprus and the Governor of Aden were members and attended when they were able to do so. There was also a Middle Eastern supply centre, which worked in close liaison with the Eastern Supply Group at Delhi, and was concerned with a wide range of military and ciyil supplies over the whole area. Mr Lyttelton said he had held regular meetings with the three command-ers-in-chief, in order to deal with purely Service matters and relieve i them of as many extraneous responsibilities as possible. His own office in Cairo was organised on the same lines as the Cabinet Office in London and the total staff numbered twentysix. The whole organisation, which included a propaganda department, was as simple and small as possible, and after three months’ experience he was able to assure the House that it was working satisfactorily.