Mr. A. V. Alexander (Labour), formerly Firsi Lord of the Admiralty, declared that the Government was rapidly heading towards financial disaster. The only hope of peace, he said, was to support the League of Nations and collective security.
Mr. LIB. Lees-Smith, for, the Labour Opposition, and' Sir Archibald Sinclair, the' Liberal' leader, complained that Sir Thomas Tnskip's speech showed lack of ce-ordination Between Britain's rearmament programme and her foreign policy, and Between the assumed requirements of Britain and the collective generally. Mr. Lees-Smith said they hod no guarantee. that expenditure was not outrunning ce-ordination, os 2 Tesult of which thousands of pounds would be wasted and the ce-ordin tion of defence indefinitely postponed.
Sir Archibald Sinclair said the vote lot the Liberals would depend on an assurance that "British armaments [would never be used except in ae cordance with the Covenant of the Teague of Nations:
Sir. Winston Churchill said he thought Sir Archibald could rest os-sured that in-any war in which Britain would ever be engaged she would" be acting entirely in. con-Tormity with the spirit of the League of Nations.
went on to criticize the ad ministrative system adopted by the Government for the ce-ordination of defence, describing Sir Thomas Inskip 5 the innocent. victim of responsibility s0 strangely, so inharmoniously, and.so perversely grouped, and endowed with" powers so restricted that no one could regard the experiment as satisfactory." Mr. Churchill Urged separation of the function of ce-ordinating high strategic thoughts from these "connected with material supplies.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.