* * * * Naval Precautions In the House of
Commons last week the Prime Minister announced amid cheers that 12,000 Naval Reservists will be called up on July 31st and that Reserve ships will take part in the combined fleet and air exercises of the Home Fleet in August and September ; this precautionary measure has been received with widespread approval. It does not amount to a mobilisation of the Navy, but it means that in the critical two months to come 13o ships of the Home Fleet will be in a condition of maximum preparedness ; and in view of the growing tension that is expected during that period no one can consider such a precaution either provo- cative or superfluous. As evidence of this country's readi- ness to face a crisis, it will be the strongest deterrent to any potential aggressor ; even Herr von Ribbentrop can hardly mistake its significance. Equally, if deterrents fail, this country will have the perhaps decisive advantage, as at the beginning of the last war, of meeting an emergency with its strongest weapons prepared for action, for the Air Force is believed to be ready for any call.
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