The Defence Debate The debate initiated by the Liberal Opposition
on Tuesday on the report of the Royal Commission on Arms Manufacture and Arms Traffic was conspicuous for its almost complete avoidance of the motion on the Paper. The House was far more concerned with the progress of rearmament, and the Government was under heavy fire from many sides. Sir Thomas Inskip appealed for more time to consider the Arms Commission's report, though he showed himself decidedly hostile to one of its principal, and most reasonable, recommendations, the appointment of a Minister of Supply. The difficulty of Members in such a debate is that Ministers cannot give detailed figures to indicate the progress rearmament is making, so that the controversy is to some extent being conducted in the dark. About the anxiety of the House and the country for national security there is no question, but there is no ground at all for agitation and panic. Disturbed as international relations are the danger of a European war is not increasing. It would be easy to adduce a number of reasons for thinking that it is diminishing. Armaments everywhere arc today on such a scale that an aggressor could only be checked by the knowledge that the peaceable States were highly avned, but we arc not in the position of having to build dams desperately against a flood on the point of over- whelming us.
