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TO BE KEPT UNDER LOCK AND KEY.
* is requested that special care may be taken te
ansure the secrecy of this document.
CL 283
(THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY'S GOVERNMENT)
not
SECRET. This docu... Was/considered at a
C.0.S.(41)759 (also W.P.(41)307)
29TH DECEMBER, 1941.
WAR CABINET.
CHIEFS OF STAFF COMMITTEE.
o.S Meeting.
COPY NO. 33
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COMMAND IN THE SOUTH-WEST PACIFIC.
Report.
We have a good many doubts about the scheme as a whole, but since the Prime Minister and our delegates in Washington have been convinced that it is a war-winner, we think it probable that many of our doubts would be dispelled if we had an opportunity of liscussing it with the authors. In any case we feel that things have gone ao far that we have no alternative but to advise His Majesty's Government to approve the scheme in principle. In these circumstances all that we have felt able to do is to invite attention to those features of the scheme about which we are in doubt, and to put up suggestions which may be helpful to the Prime Minister and our delegates in Washington.
2.
In
The scheme shows a tendency towards area responsibility rather than world-wide strategy, effect, it establishes a body to control the war against Japan, and does not establish a similar body to control the war against Germany. Nor does it provide for any overriding body which will be responsible for the strategy of the war as a whole, and for allocating the allied resources in men and material to the various theatres. We think that such a body is essential.
3. We have discussed the composition of the "joint body" in Washington and we are not clear as to what is intended. We consider a military side to be essential, but we infer from the telegram that a political side is also intended. This would be valuable and we suggest that it should be on similar lines to that set up in the Middle East. The military representatives should be subordinate to the Chiefs of Staff in this country, is most important that they should not be "Henry Wilsons", We think that it would be necessary to have representative on this joint body of those Allies and of the Dominions interested in the South-West Pacific Area.
It
759
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