The Grand Alliance (172 page)

Pray see the attached epitome of the Beveridge
report on skilled men in the Services and the letter of
the Minister of Labour. Evidently the report is most
damaging to the War Office, and before it can be
published it is imperative that good, clear proposals for
mending the evil should be formulated by the War
Office and published at the same time as the report.

No one would expect the Army, which is expanding
twentyfold, to have the same efficiency of organisation
as the Navy, which is hardly doubled. But you ought to
be up to the standard of the air force, which is also
growing very rapidly.

I should advise you to set up a small committee, with
perhaps the Financial Secretary in the chair, to hack
out a good scheme. This scheme should be ready in a
fortnight, and after I have approved it the whole publication can be brought before the Cabinet.

(Action this day.) Prime

14.XI.41.

Minister to First Lord and

First Sea Lord

I am much disquieted by these facts. We are sinking
less than two U-boats a month.
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They are increasing
by nearly twenty. The failure of our methods, about
which so much was proclaimed by the Admiralty before
the war, is painfully apparent. I presume we have lost a
far higher proportion of British submarines placed in
service since the beginning of the war than the enemy.

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Let me have the actual figures.

2. I regard the whole position as so serious that I
wish to have a special meeting in the near future to
survey the whole problem and consider whether
anything can be done beyond the present measures.

Let me know what increases are to be expected
month by month in our anti-U-boat hunting-craft. Let all
the considerations about the German difficulty of
training crews and other aspects be assembled and
reviewed. Let me know when you will be ready.

Prime Minister to Home

15.XI.41.

Secretary

I shall be glad to know what action you have taken
about enabling the twelve couples of married internees
to be confined together. Now that order has been
restored in the Isle of Man there should be no particular
reason against their going there. If not there must
surely be some prisons in England in which arrangements could be made for reasonable association of
husband and wife.

Is it true that when aliens are interned husband and
wife are interned in one place? If so it seems invidious
to discriminate against those of British nationality.

Feeling against 18B is very strong, and I should not
be prepared to support the regulation indefinitely if it is
administered in such a very onerous manner. Intern-ment rather than imprisonment is what was contemplated.Sir Oswald Mosley’s wife has now been eighteen
months in prison without the slightest vestige of any
charge against her, and separated from her husband.

Has the question of releasing a number of these
internees on parole been considered, or on condition of
their finding sureties for good behaviour, etc.?

I should be glad if you would make proposals to the
Cabinet before the debate in the House takes place.

Prime Minister to Secretary

17.XI.41.

of State for War and C.I.G.S.

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It seems a pity that the nine beach or county divisions should be rated at a lower level than the field
divisions. All they lack are two Royal Engineer companies and one regiment of artillery each, together with
transport on the higher scale. Pray let me have a plan
to raise these divisions to the field division scale by
March 31, or, if that is impossible by the end of June,
1942, and let me know what additional man-power
would be required and whether the equipment is
forthcoming.

At the rate at which lorries, etc., are coming out, the
extra transport should soon be available, especially if
reasonable tail-combing is used on the main corpus of
the Army.

Prime Minister to Lord

17.XI.41.

Cherwell, Sir Edward

Bridges, and General Ismay

It is my wish before the end of the year to have fully
planned the War Production Budget of 1942 and to
submit this for approval to the Cabinet. For this purpose
the programmes of the Navy, Army, and air force, which
are already far advanced, must be settled and the
resulting tasks of the Supply Department set forth.

At the same time the import programme, already
completed on a basis of thirty-three million tons, and
the home production should be surveyed. I should
propose that of the extra two million tons import available half a million tons should go to food or feeding-stuffs and the other one and a half million tons to
munitions in order to make up for their heavy cut this
year. But this does not mean that needless imports, like
timber, should be allowed undue expansion. The
emphasis must be placed on a sharper war effort.

The third major element is man-power, now under
Cabinet discussion but far advanced towards settlement.

It should be possible to state the above in broad
outlines in a directive to be circulated about December
15. Perhaps you will let me have a preliminary study.

The directive should not exceed one of my white
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square double sheets and should follow the model of
last year.

Prime Minister to President

22.XI.41.

of the Board of Education

Let me have a short note showing the number of
boys who leave the public elementary schools at fifteen
years and over, under the war conditions of 1941.

How many of these go into any form of industry and
employment? How many are there in munitions
between the ages of fifteen and eighteen and one-half
years? How many go into cadet corps of various kinds?

How many pursue their education in secondary schools
or go to the universities?

I am anxious that the educational and disciplinary
aspects of these boys’ lives shall rank as prominently in
our minds as the need to find considerable numbers for
A.R.P., A.A. batteries, etc.

Prime Minister to First Sea

23.XI.41.

Lord

What is the present plan about the distribution of the
aircraft-carriers? Since these telegrams were received
we have lost the Ark Royal, but we still have four good
new ones. I do not want to waste any one of them by
sending it all round the Cape, unless such a voyage
coincided with an inevitable working-up period. At
present I am waiting to see what will happen in the
Mediterranean. Of course, if Admiral Cunningham is
going to take station in the Central Mediterranean, or if
we get Tripoli or perhaps French North Africa comes
out, it would be worth putting at least two aircraft-carriers there. We cannot see ahead clearly enough at
present. I suppose you will give one of the older ones
to the Indian Ocean and Pacific.

Please let me have a short note.

Prime Minister to

27.XI.41.

Commander, “Force K”

Many congratulations on your fine work since you
arrived at Malta, and will you please tell all ranks and
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ratings from me that the two exploits in which they have
been engaged, namely, the annihilation of the enemy’s
convoys on November 8 and of the two oil ships on
Monday last, have played a very definite part in the
great battle now raging in Libya. The work of the force
has been most fruitful, and all concerned may be proud
to have been a real help to Britain and our cause.

Prime Minister to General

8.XI.41

Ismay, for C.O.S. Committee

and C.A.S.

Everything in human power should be done [to help
the guerrilla fighters in Yugoslavia]. Please report what
is possible.

Prime Minister to First Sea

28.XI.41.

Lord

I cannot help feeling that the estimate of thirty-six U-boats operating in the North Atlantic by December 15 is
worse than it will be.
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I hope you will consider the
possibility of reinforcing the Mediterranean with at least
a dozen destroyers. They need not necessarily be there
very long, as the situation may change with the
decision in Libya. Numbers are however the essence of
successful hunting, and we ought to get good results.

Pray let me know whether anything more can be
done.

Let me have U-boat sinkings for November.

Prime Minister to General

29.XI.41.

Ismay

I am dissatisfied with the way in which this project
for Polish officers in West Africa, in which I took a
personal interest, has been followed up. It was
evidently necessary that a proper outfit allowance
should be paid to the Polish officers proceeding to
these tropical regions. Yet all these months have
passed haggling about it. First five pounds is offered,
then finally fifteen pounds. I expect this is typical of the
way in which the experiment has been handled.

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On other papers I have directed that two hundred
more Polish officers are to be invited to present themselves for examination. A weekly report is to be
supplied to me personally of the progress made both in
West Africa and at home. Please report to me any
signs of obstructionism, and pursue the matter yourself
from the Defence Office. Let me know who is the officer
responsible in the War Office for dealing with this, and
make sure you keep him up to the mark by constant
inquiries.

Prime Minister to Foreign

30.XI.41.

Secretary

I think it most important that the United States
should continue their relations with Vichy and their
supplies to North Africa and any other contacts unosten-tatiously for the present. It would be a great mistake to
lose any contacts before we know the result of the
battle in Libya and its reactions. There is always time to
break, but it is more difficult to renew contacts.

DECEMBER

Prime Minister to C.A.S. and

6.XII.41.

Commander-in-ChiefFighter

Command

The following are the main conclusions which we
reached in our talk last night:

“Gee”
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is to be started on February 1, 1942,
unless examination shows that the weather conditions
over the last ten or twelve years prove that March is
likely to be far more favourable than February. In that
event the matter should be referred to me again for
decision.

2. Every effort is to be made to broaden the front of
the fighter force. To this end reserves of pilots and
machines should be disposed in squadrons, and thus
allow roulement to be extended in the event of protracted fighting.

3. As an experiment a night-fighter wing is to be
issued with day-fighting machines with a view to
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introducing a system of dual-purpose fighter squadrons,
if the experiment proves successful.

Prime Minister to Minister of

6.XII.41.

Food

Amid your many successes in your difficult field, the
egg distribution scheme seems to be an exception. I
hear complaints from many quarters, and the scarcity of
eggs is palpable.