ABSTRACT
The rearmament programmes of the later 1930s still bore some of the marks of the First World War and the 1920s. The most visible sign of this had been the ‘ten-year rule’, under which the Cabinet had laid down that for at least ten years to come no major war need be expected and prepared for. First adopted in August 1919, it had been reaffirmed in 1928. The mounting irritation of the Chiefs of Staff with the rule, under which, they said, all three Services had developed great deficiencies, induced the Cabinet to rescind it in 1932. It had been the Japanese aggressions against Manchuria and Shanghai which had moved the Chiefs to their final outburst against the rule. The accession of Hitler to power in Germany in 1933, and his policy of immediate military expansion, further crystallised strategic thinking; by 1934, all defence plans were focused on the Japanese and German dangers. Italian policy caused concern also, but not until 1937 did the Cabinet instruct the Service chiefs to include Italy in the list of possible aggressors. 1
