Mr. Baldwin recalled that although Britain had had the titanic energy of Lord Kitchener and those ho worked with him in the creation of the new armies in the early part of the Great War, additional departments were formed rapidly and, before the war was over, there were en new departments created in this country. 'That this was no singular experience in Europe was shown by the fact that France, presumably a country more ready' for war than ourselves, created nine new Ministries and Italy and Greece four each, The war problem was not one of centralization. Tt was a matter of ce-ordination and, if he might say 40, ce-ordinated decentralization, The Premier referred. to various committees which had reported against the scheme of having a Minister of Defence and said" he could see no useful purpose in Fourther investigation of this idea. The defence question concerned departments other than the fighting services, Tt connected the Foreign Office, the India Office, the Domi-sions) and Colonial Office and. the Honra of Trade. The present defence system hinged on the Cabinet. 'The defence policy could not be considered apart from the foreign and Imperial policy for which the Gabinet, as the executive of Parl ment, was responsible. Since the creation of 2 Defence Committee, the committee had been found' very rear value in the past year or two. By it, close contact was Kept throughout the three services, which had been drawn into far closer Ca-ordination than had ever yet been obtained—British Wireless through
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.