The enterprise of the National Defence Public Interest Committee in
arranging a national defence display in Hyde Park on Saturday was well rewarded, in that the public flocked in thousands to see and hear,—and deserved to be. It might perhaps have occurred to the Government to stage such a show itself, though in some ways the combination of unofficial initiative with official co-operation may be preferable. The object was not primarily to recruit, but to enable the public to see for themselves the nature of all the forms of national defence—the Services, the Territorial Army, the Auxiliary Air Force, the Anti-Aircraft units, the balloon barrage, guns of every description, numerous aspects of A.R.P., ambulance and auxiliary fire services, decon- taminating squads and steel shelters. In the old days every red-coat was a potential recruiting agent. In an epoch of khaki and battleship-grey rather more calculated display is called for, and the Hyde Park demonstration came oppor- tunely the very day after the Prime Minister's announce- ment on defence against aggression.
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