The Air Debate The debate on our air defences on
Wednesday (further discussed by our Parliamentary correspondent on the next page) left no one content. The Opposition, whose case was put effectively and with moderation by Mr. Dalton, failed to move the Government in the matter either of a committee of enquiry into Air Ministry administration or the creation of a Ministry of Supply ; and on the Government side, in spite of the declarations of the Prime Minister and the promises of the new Air Minister, Sir Kingsley Wood, most private members retained an uneasy conviction that things were not only no better than they should be, but considerably worse. Ministers may speak confidently of what the Air Force will be in two years' time, but most sane people are thinking in terms of the dangers of 1938, not of 1940, and it is quite certain that against those dangers we are inadequately protected. It is not a case for recrimination—the situation is too serious for time to be wasted on that—but for taking every possible step to accelerate production, of anti-aircraft guns no less than of aeroplanes. To the demand for a committee of enquiry it is a reasonable answer that that procedure would only cause delay and dislocation, and that the new Minister must be left free to get on with his work, but the case for a Ministry of Supply, as Mr. Churchill argued convincingly, is far stronger. The demand for that will not, and should not, be dropped.
Previous page
