MANY QUESTIONS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 July 1942, Page 4

MANY QUESTIONS

LEFT TO BE ANSWERED AFTER HOUSE! OF COMMONS DEBATE. LONDON CRITICS EXPECT CHANGES. (Received This; Day, 11.15 a.m.) (Special P.A. Correspondent.) LONDON, July 5. The general concensus of opinion after the House of Commons debate is that many questions still remain to be answered. Those concerning the Libyan defeat must wait, whiie fighting continues in Egypt, but there is a strong feeling that an investigation should be held when the result is announced. In the House of Commons there is a general hope that the Government, having received a vote of confidence, will ascertain where faults and deficiencies lie. For that reason administrative and organisational changes are expected. It is felt that one lesson from the debate was the need for a general home front tightening up and for a more businesslike co-ordination of the whole war effort; also that Whitehall must work at a smarter pace. The “Sunday Times” criticises the War Cabinet and the Civil Service and compares the present Cabinet unfavourably with Mr Lloyd George’s (in the latter part of the 1914-18 war). The present Cabinet, the newspaper says, “takes longer to give decisions and they are less right ones. The difference may be largely personal, lying partly with the Prime Minister, whose temperament tends towards cooking every pie himself, and partly in his colleagues, some of whom are unfit for cookery without him. The Civil Service, at the top, lias shown not too well in this war.”

The “Sunday Times” adds: “It is professional failings —a reluctance to take responsibility, resulting in a habit of referring matters from pillar to post, regardless of urgency—that seem more noticeable than ever, while the corps of Department heads shows few as outstanding as those of 1914-18. Some short-term medicine seems greatly needed.”

The “Economist” sums up the debate and the public anger at Tobruk as a plain sign that there must be no more bungling, and adds: "This is a crisis of self-confidence. There has been a sense of disappointment at the repeated failures of British arms. The knowledge that British fighting men were never more willing, more courageous or, man for man, a better match for the enemy, only makes the disappointment more bitter. This mood of frustration affects both soldiers and civilians and can be dangerous if it makes men cynicol. Full confidence can only be restored by success in battle.” The Services have not escaped criticism. Mr John Gordon, in the “Sunday Express,” says: “Britain wants men who understand tank tactics as well as Rommel,” and adding: “It is next to useless appointing a man as a tank general simply because he is a good infantry or cavalry commander and in the line of seniority. A different mind altogether is needed.”