Apart from the personal attendance of ministers, however, Mr. Bridwin continued, the association of the Dominions' with the [Committee after the War had been considerable, He mentioned that there were at present 60. subcommittees dealing with coordination of the fighting services and ancillary work. of the civilian departments generally, The whole of this great field was co-ordinated by the Committee of Imperial Defence.
The Prime Minister expressed the hope that the Dominions and India would avail themselves of the advantages of the recently established Imperial Defence College.
1 The Singapore Base Referring to the Singapore naval dose, Mr, Baldwin stated that the present programme of work was. Himited to what was essential to enable utilization of the floating dock after its arrival," Meanwhile the Government had recently decid. ed to adopt the reduced scheme ndvanced by the Admiralty. At the same time careful investigations had been made with regard to the requisite naval base defences and the plans of the Chiefs of Staffs had Been approved. The expenditure was very heavy even after allowing for reductions of the original Admiralty scheme.
"We have reached the conclusion, after very careful consideration, that it is vital to the security of the Empire that this scheme be proceeded with," declared Mfr, Baldwin, "because it is essential that the fleet shall have full freedom of movement throughout the Empire.
Therefore, he asked the Dominions specially interested in the Far East to consider very carefully whether there was any way in which they could ce-operate in the development of Singapore, either now or within the next few years. There could be no more valuable contribution to the defence of the Empire as a whole.
1 Protection from Air Raids
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.