20 MARCH 1926, Page 3

* * * * We agree heartily with what Sir

John Davidson said in the House of Commons and we congratulate him on 'his courage. He confessed that he was staggered by the aggregate expenditure of £117,000,000 on defence. " We cannot," he exclaimed, " go on spending like that." He suspected that the Colwyn Committee's Report had not been published because it was unfavourable to the Admiralty and the War Office. Finally he declared, ' Unless next year there is a plain statement in regard to Imperial Defence as- a whole before the presentation of the separate Estimates,. I shall not conscientiously be able to vote for these large sums." Sir John Davidson 'was not talking the futilities of Mr. Lansbury, who had nicked that the Navy should be abolished. He spoke of what he knew ; he is one of the most experienced Staff Officers living. *