Calling Ur, Reserves At a period so perilous and uncertain
as the present there is something unreal about the complaints heard nowadays about " alarming news." Most of the news is a plain record of facts giving good grounds for alarm. There was, how- ever, a strong case to be made out for the Bill which sim- plifies and accelerates the procedure for calling up Reserve and Auxiliary Forces. The present system, which requires that a state of emergency should be officially declared to exist before the Reserve Forces can be called up is misleading and anachronistic in that the state of emergency today is con- tinuous. But the extra degree of alarm inevitably induced in the country by such a declaration will be avoided under the new. regulations, and the House of Commons showed its appreciation of this benefit by giving the Bill an unopposed second reading on Tuesday after a comparatively short dis- cussion. Mr. .Hore-Belisha's explanation that the Regular Army would now be able to train at war strength in forma- tions, and thus be able to take the field at short notice, was welcome ; more particularly his announcement that the anti- aircraft units will be called up this summer in rotation will reassure many who have realised the dangerous lacunae in our anti-aircraft defences which will thus be filled.
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