Middle East Defence
The meeting of the Defence Ministers of the Commonwealth which has been held in London was arranged early this year, before the cloud on the Persian horizon was any bigger than a xnan's hand. But now the Persian crisis has given an additional sense of urgency to the talks, since it is known that they dealt in the main with problems of Middle Eastern defence. In any future war Western bases in the Middle East would have to be able to secure the defence of the oil-fields and to block the African back door to Europe. At the present moment it is very doubtful whether they could do either. The first call on buttress- ing the defences of the Middle East must naturally go to the Commonwealth Powers, since they are all directly concerned, but although South Africa, Australia and New Zealand are all presumably willing to help, there is little chance of substantial aid in men and material coming from them, for some time at any rate. India, Pakistan and Ceylon were not represented at these talks, although their co-operation would have been Welcomed, and their interest in this area is not less than that of the other Dominions. They are held back by political scruples, which die hard. The Persian crisis is a good instance of the difficulty which, even in the present emergency, these new Dominions find in going against the political traditions of the last generation. For them the free flow of Persian oil is even more vital than it is for Britain ; but for them also their traditional place in any dispute between an Eastern and a Western Power is at the side of the Eastern. It is in the broader aspects of defence, which include the political and economic stabilisation of the Middle Eastern countries, that the participation of the new Dominions could be most useful.
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