The Future of Defence
The difficulty of maintaining interest and a sense of reality in military exercises in time of peace (and even in time of war) was the main one facing the Chief of the Imperial General Staff in his vigorous speech at Camberley last Saturday. "Exercise Bamboo," which dealt with operations in the Far East, was just over, and already Lord Montgomery was looking forward to "Exercise Britannia," which will be held next year and will be concerned with a comprehensive and co-ordihated approach to civil defence. What could be more reasonable ? The steady approach to the integration of military with civil operations on the home front in the last war has been given a tremendous push by the emergence of atomic weapons, with the consequence that the two aspects of defence are likely to merge completely at least in the initial stages of the next war. But it is already clear that it will require all the drive of the C.I.G.S. and a great deal of imagination and initiative elsewhere to make "Exercise Britannia" really successful—that is to say, useful in indicating the practical difficulties which would have to be faced in war conditions. It is no doubt this same lack of imagination which is causing recruiting for the Army to drag. Lord Montgomery did what he could by bringing out the essential continuity of interest as well as of organisation which will be made possible by the incorporation of Regulars, National Service men and Territorials in a single force. He emphasised that the only essential basis of it all was the maintenance of keenness grid a sense of realism. But if this is difficult to put over to young men to whom soldiering would be a profession, then how much more difficult it will be to convince civilians to whom preparation for defence will only be a part-time activity. Yet it must be done. Educated and disciplined imagination applied to the possibilities of future warfare is not only the best means of preparing for it, but also the most certain instru- ment for strengthening determination to avert it.
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