London, Oct. 11. AN assurance that there was complete unity of command in France was given by Mr. Leslie Here-Belisha, Secretary of State for War, in a long statement in the House of Commons today regarding the British Army's part in the present war.
"The British Army," he said, s under French command (cheers), and the British Commander-in-Chief has right of appeal to his own Cabinet, which I do not imagine it will be normally necessary to exercise, because the understanding is so complete and wholehearted in every particular.
But unity of command is assured in that way, and it is even possible that French troops may be under the British Commander-in-Chief, Mr. Here-Belisha announced that Lt.-General Sir John Greer Dill, recently in command of the British forces in Palestine, was commanding the Ist Army Corps, and that Viscount Gort's Chief of Staff was Major-General H. R. Pownall, Director of Military Operations and Intelligence.
The War Secretary informed the "House that Britain had more than fulfilled her undertaking to France to despatch to that country, in the event of war, a British expeditionary force of specified dimension within a specified time.
"Within six weeks of the outbreak of war in 1914," he declared, "we had transported to France 148,000 men. Within five weeks of the outbreak of this war, we have transported to France 158,000 men. During this period we have also created our base and lines of communication, and an organization so as to ensure a regular flow of supplies and munitions of every kind, and to receive further contingents as and when we may decide to send them.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.