HC Deb 03 April 1951 vol 486 cc21-3
38. Brigadier Smyth

asked the Secretary of State for War if he will give an assurance that the plans indicated for the organisation of the Home Guard and its rôle in any future emergency will be worked out in time for the Home Guard to be included in home defence exercises this summer.

Mr. Strachey

Instructions regarding planning for the Home Guard were issued to commands on 2nd March, 1951, and planning has begun. As the House has already been informed, however, it is not proposed actually to raise the Home Guard at present.

Brigadier Smyth

Does the right hon. Gentleman realise that when, on 14th March, I asked the Minister of Defence whether any exercises were to be carried on this summer in order to make clear the rôle of the Home Guard in home defence, the Minister replied that plans for the organisation of the Home Guard, and its rôle in any future emergency, were then being worked out? Can the right hon. Gentleman now give any indication of what those plans are to be?

Mr. Strachey

The planning is going on, and that is being organised in the commands, but it has been decided that the actual raising of the force should not go on for the present.

Mr. Eden

I have no dispute about the raising of the force, but I should like to ask the right hon. Gentleman if this planning includes the appointment of commanders so that, if need be, the raising of the force could rapidly follow?

Mr. Strachey

In these cases, it includes the appointment of officers responsible within the commands.

Mr. Eden

But it does not include commanding officers of units?

Mr. Strachey

No, not the commanding officers of the units.

Mr. Eden

That does not get us very far.

Mr. Bossom

Can the Minister say whether he has got the arms ready for them, so that they will be available when they are called up?

Mr. Strachey

There are considerable reserves of rifles in this country.

Mr. Nabarro

Would the right hon. Gentleman consider a matter upon which I asked the Under-Secretary a question three or four weeks ago; that is, the matter of recruiting at this stage county weapon cadres of trained officers whose services are not being used at this time?

Mr. Strachey

That can only be considered by officers appointed to the staffs of Commands.

Brigadier Smyth

Would the right hon. Gentleman realise that any potential aggressor in the West must consider very seriously the possibility of direct attack on this country by means of airborne landings, and does he really think that the existing arrangements for home defence, particularly in regard to Civil Defence and the Home Guard, are such as would deter an aggressor at the present moment?

Mr. Strachey

That is a very much wider question, and I cannot, in reply to a supplementary question, add anything to the considerations which have led my right hon. Friend the Minister of Defence and myself to decide that the order of priority should not be for the actual raising of the Home Guard at the moment.