PERIL AND PREPARATION
THE seriousness of the statement on defence measures made by Mr. Morrison in the House of Commons on Tuesday can be ignored by no one. On the other hand, it was not made and must not be received in any alarmist spirit. It is plain that in the present state of the world military unpreparedness would be beyond pardon. It is equally plain that in the perfectly proper desire to draft every available man into productive industry we have demobilised to some- thing very near the point of military unpreparedness. The first necessity is to strengthen the Regular Army. That is being done in the first instance by retaining men for three months after their expected date of release. That will mean a gain of 8o,000 men by the end of the year. The next essential step, though Mr. Morrison did not emphasise it, is to exert every possible means to recruit more men for the Regular Army ; that is largely a question of improved pay and conditions, particularly married quarters. The promised recruit- ing campaign for the auxiliary forces is a wise step, but something more than that is needed. The country was never as full as it is today of trained men, who could in case of crisis be called up and mobilised for service. But what preparations have been made for that ? Clearly ex-Servicemen should be divided into those working in essential and non-essential industries respectively. The first business is with the latter. Each of them should be allotted here and now to a particular military unit, so that in the event of a call-up every man would know at once where to go, and every unit would know how many men, and what men, to prepare for. Arrangements of this kind may have been made. If so, they have not been announced. If they have not been made they should at once be most seriously considered.
But in modern warfare—more than ever, almost certainly, in future warfare—weapons are even more important than men. That aspect of the present situation must be given the most urgent attention. The need for more and mote up-to-date equipment, particularly fighter aircraft, means inevitably diverting men from productive to non- productive industry—a grave step to take in such economic conditions as exist today. But this would be the last Government to make such a decision if the decision were not forced on it. Details of the plan announced by Mr. Morrison may be open to discussion and criticism. The principles it rests on can unhappily not be challenged.
