As the Dominion Governments will have appreciated, the success of
the German attack in Northern France has produced a situation in
which an attempted invasion of this country possibly in the near
future has to be taken very seriously into account with practical
effects on the disposition of all available military land forces
in the United Kingdom. The policy which it had hitherto been hoped
to follow in respect of Dominion troops while training in this
country was to allocate them to areas primarily selected on
grounds of suitability for training purposes and entirely without
reference to the possibility of the troops in question having to
be used as part of the available defence of the country.

The altered situation with which we are now faced has necessitated
reconsideration of the disposition of the Australian and New
Zealand contingents which will very shortly be arriving in this
country. It had of course been hoped to locate these contingents
and to make all the arrangements connected with their arrival here
with the continuation of their training solely in view and the
eventuality of completely self-contained and fully trained
Australian and New Zealand higher formations. As the situation now
is, it is necessary to make such arrangements for the location of
contingents as will best suit the needs of the time. Every effort
will of course be made to arrange for continuation of their
training on the most effective lines including so far as possible
avoidance of dispersal but there is no alternative to locating
contingents in any district in the United Kingdom where, having
regard to the stage of training already reached and the high
quality of the troops, they will be best placed to carry out
whatever defensive role it might be necessary on occurrence of an
emergency to allot to them. We are confident that in the
circumstances His Majesty's Government in the Commonwealth of
Australia and His Majesty's Government in New Zealand will raise
no objection to this.

The fullest possible information will of course be given to the
Dominion Governments as arrangements are decided on and the
closest touch maintained.