THE LIBERALS AND RE-ARMAMENT
Snt,—Mr. Barber states that only Mr. Winston Churchill "can claim to have warned the country to rearm." Surely this does less than justice to Sir Archibald Sinclair and his Liberal followers, who for at least three years before the war constantly drew the attention of the House of Commons and the country to the unsatisfactory nature of our military preparations and to the need for a more vigorous handling of the problems of Supply.
As early as 1936, in the Debate on the Address, the Liberal spokes- men argued that a Ministry of Supply was essential and should be set up forthwith. Again, in 1938 attention was called to the "serious delay in the execution of the programme of rearmamern stated to be necessary by the Service Departments for national safety.' On that occasion Mr. Churchill, supporting the Liberal Amendment: said:
"We are indebted to the Liberal Party for having brought the House of Commons squarely up to the fence. The House must jump that fence or swerve ignominously away from it and, in the result, as I believe, lose a race upon which the stakes not only compromise the safety of our country, but also affect great causes of world significance."
This is not the only occasion when Mr. Churchill went out of his way to call attention to the attitude of the Liberal Party. On April 3rd, 1939, he said: "I must say I think this is a fine hour in the life- of the Liberal Party, because, from the moment When they realised that rearmament was necessary, they have seemed to seek to bring forward together both the material and moral strength of this country, and ' I believe that at the moment they represent what is the heart and soul of the British nation."
As the smaller Opposition, the Liberals had comparatively less opportunities of choosing the subject for debate; they were allotted only four Supply days in 1936-7 and in 1937-8, and three in 1938-9, Nevertheless, during the years in question they constantly used their limited opportunities to call attention to the slow progress of our re- armament in general and of our aerial armament in particular.—
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