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(Conclusion.)

Constitution, functions, and procedure of the Air Committee (C.I.D. paper 162 B)

approved.

VII. OVERSEA ATTACK ON THE BRITISH ISLES.

THE PRIME MINISTER said that there was another matter which he desired to mention to the Committee. That was the question of the possibility of an invasion of these islands-the most important question with which the Committee had to deal. It had been exhaustively examined by a Sub-Committee appointed by Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman in 1908, of which he had been Chairman and five or six other Ministers members. They had examined Lord Roberts, Colonel Repington, and other witnesses, and in the end they had arrived at certain conclusions. He had no desire to throw doubt upon the soundness of those conclusions, but there had been develop. ments and changes in many of the factors since 1908-in the strength of foreign navies in the North Sea and in the Mediterranean, in naval architecture, submarines, flying, wireless telegraphy, and other matters. He thought, therefore, that the time had come to review the situation once more, and he proposed to appoint a Sub-Committee, constituted substantially upon the same lines as the former one, to examine whether the new factors which had arisen necessitated any revision of the conclusions then arrived at.

VIII-OIL FUEL.

MR. CHURCHILL said that he would like to mention one other matter-the

question of oil fuel. This was a matter of great importance to the Navy, but the interim Report of the Royal Commission raised much greater issues-financial, economic, and national. He did not know whether a Sub-Committee of the Com- mittee of Imperial Defence would be a suitable body to discuss it, or whether it had better be discussed by a Committee of the Cabinet.

COLONEL SEELY said that the Army was deeply interested in the question of the supply of petrol, now that mechanical transport had been adopted for military transport.

THE PRIME MINISTER said that in view of the great economic questions involved, a Committee of the Cabinet would be the most suitable body to examine the question.

PRINTED AT THE FOREIGN OFFICE BY C. R. HARRISON.—16,1 1913.

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