one force aim for services . Mr Watkinson at work on five-year plan . 400,000 regulars and no call-up . by H B Boyne , daily telegraph political correspondent . the next white paper on defence , to be published in March , is likely to contain a five-year plan for the three services . its aim will be to produce superbly equipped , all-regular forces of about 400,000 men . the three services would be integrated to a greater extent than ever before . short of wearing the same uniform , which is not contemplated , the navy , army and royal air force would become , for practical purposes , a single defence force . there would be complete co-operation at all levels in training and operations . this would apply also in the command structure and central administrative organisation . Mr Watkinson , Minister of defence , has been working on the plan for some months , with the Prime Minister &apos;s approval . he has had numerous meetings with the service Ministers . he has also had talks with the Earl of Home , foreign Secretary , and with other Ministers concerned with overseas aspects of defence policy . voluntary forces . recruiting confidence . details of the scheme are now being worked out by the Chiefs of staff , a process that may take four or five months . the scheme will be subject to cabinet approval . Mr Watkinson remains convinced that the policy initiated in 1957 , in Mr Sandys &apos;s time as Minister of defence , is still correct . this was to return to the tradition of all-regular voluntary forces , with the last national serviceman out of uniform by the end of 1962 . the Minister regards the recent trend of recruiting figures as encouraging . he is confident the aim can be achieved . while the possibility of an eventual return to national service in some form can not be entirely discounted , he does not agree that the point has been reached where this need even be considered . service chiefs . no question of dispute . if national service is ever resorted to , engagement would probably have to be for three years . it is thought this would be the minimum necessary for the extended training modern arms require and to enable each man to serve at least a year overseas . there is no truth in suggestions that Mr Watkinson is at odds with the service chiefs over the decision to dispense with national service , or over any other aspect of defence policy . criticisms about army manpower appear to have come mainly from retired officers who have held high positions but are out of touch with the existing situation . Mr Watkinson has had the utmost support from the C.I.G.S , Field-Marshal Sir Francis Festing , who believes completely in the principle of an all-regular army . Gen Sir Richard Hull , who is to succeed Sir Francis , is equally convinced Mr Watkinson is right . command change . delay due to Berlin . Sir Francis is to hand over to Sir Richard as from Nov 1 . the hand-over , due in September , was delayed because of the Berlin crisis . Mr Watkinson and his advisers felt the change would be unwise at a moment when attention had to be concentrated on possible need for important military operations . for this reason Sir Francis stayed on , and sacrificed his leave . now that the Berlin situation seems more stable , it is felt he can relinquish his duties . as a field-marshal , he remains on the active list . he may be asked to take another important post . gains for Dr Verwoerd &apos;s party . from Colin Reid , daily telegraph special correspondent . Cape Town , Thursday . an electronic computer which has accurately forecast the results of previous general elections put the new South African House early this morning at 104 nationalists and 52 united party and national union members . there was a computed 8.4 per cent swing towards the nationalist party of Dr Verwoerd , the Prime Minister . this implies the disappearance of the progressive party from the house . early results in yesterday &apos;s general election showed nationalists being returned in their strongholds , like Bloemfontein and the Transvaal , with slightly increased majorities . in the Cape , the veteran united party politician , Mr Harry Lawrence , standing as a progressive , was defeated in his constituency , Salt River , by the united party candidate , Mr H M Timoney . Dr Steytler defeated . the defeat of the leader of the progressive party , Dr Steytler , in Port Elizabeth South , announced immediately afterwards by the united party candidate , Mr Plewman , left the progressives deprived of both their chief figures . Dr Verwoerd and the leader of the opposition , Sir de Villiers Graaff , have been returned unopposed . the contests were for 86 seats as 70 nationalists and 20 united party candidates are unopposed . long before polling closed at 8 p.m it was evident that voters were bored by the government &apos;s frequent appeals to the electorate . the election was the fourth in four years . in most constituencies it may go down as the most apathetic in the country &apos;s history . mobilisation if necessary , says Premier . fresh check on fall-out ordered . the Prime Minister disclosed in the Commons last night that he had considered early in the parliamentary recess whether to mobilise reserves necessary to bring the British army of the Rhine on to a war footing . he decided that it would be a great error to do so and to recall parliament . but there would be no hesitation in mobilising if a further deterioration in the situation warranted such a step . it would have to be accompanied by other measures of a military , economic and political kind . Mr Macmillan , who was winding up the foreign affairs debate , said the government could not be party to accepting as a matter of principle the imposed division of Germany . we must not be rattled into surrender , but we must not - and I am not - be afraid of negotiation . Mr Godber , Minister of state , foreign office , said earlier that the government had asked the medical research council to reassess the fall-out position in view of the Russian tests . the council &apos;s findings would be made public . stand firm call . Lord Avon &apos;s maiden speech . with a vigour and authority which delighted old parliamentary friends and foes alike , the Earl of Avon , the former Sir Anthony Eden , in his maiden speech in the House of Lords last night , gave a warning that appeasement over Berlin could only lead to war . to stand firm , he declared , was not to invite war , but the surest way to avert it . the free world could not yield to atomic blackmail and survive . getting used to anxiety . Premier &apos;s speech . by T F Lindsay . daily telegraph special correspondent . Westminster , Wednesday . we must get accustomed to anxiety , said the Prime Minister to the House of Commons to-night , and not let ourselves drift or be pushed into panic . we must not be rattled into surrender , and we must not be , and I am not , afraid of negotiations . it was the end of a rather curious speech in which Mr Macmillan wound up the two-day debate on foreign affairs . he began in a low , almost chatty monotone , and his voice never rose to any accent of urgency . he passed in rapid review the united nations secretariat ; nuclear tests ; the canard about British interference with the united nations in the Congo ; Kuwait ; and south-east Asia . he spent most of his short half-hour on Berlin . he deplored the possibility of some new myth about betrayal of Germany by the allies . Russia &apos;s aim . irrevocable division . we do not , he said , really know what the Russians want . but he was certain that they wanted to establish a final and irrevocable division of Germany . Britain could not be a party to an imposed division . but negotiation , as the debate had shown , could be undertaken on a variety of bases . Mr Macmillan explained that he had deliberately refrained during the summer from recalling parliament or ordering mobilisation by proclamation , such as would be necessary to bring the British army of the Rhine on to a fully active footing . that would have created a thoroughly undesirable atmosphere of panic . he thought that the situation was rather more hopeful . the Russians now realised its seriousness . the French doubts were more about procedure than about substance . the Prime Minister &apos;s attitude of studied calm brought down the temperature of the debate , which never at any time rose to fever pitch , to a remarkable degree of sub-normality . throughout Mr Macmillan &apos;s speech the Earl of Home , foreign Secretary , was listening in the peers &apos; Gallery . the early speakers in the debate each severely rated the speech of his predecessor . these strictures were all too well justified . we started with the plaintive wailings of Mr Healey , shadow foreign Secretary , described by Mr Godber , Minister of state , foreign office , as pedantic and obscure on Berlin , damaging and obscure on the Congo . in turn , Mr Godber was censured by Mr Shinwell , former labour defence Minister , for having read the House an ill-prepared essay . too wide a range . free-for-all . the trouble about such debates is that they range too widely . they remind one of the rugby match in Tom Brown &apos;s schooldays , in which all the boys were welcome to take part , and only those who really meant business removed their jackets . not many metaphorical braces were visible in the early stages of to-night &apos;s debate . Mr Healey had another tilt at the Prime Minister &apos;s golf-course press conference , which he described as a display of flabby and fatuous complacency which takes us straight back to Neville Chamberlain . a reference to the reunification of Germany brought a bark of start another war ! from Mr Ellis Smith ( Lab , Stoke on Trent S ) . then Mr Healey launched out on his pet theme of limitation of armaments in Europe . this could , he suggested , be linked with prohibition of the production of atomic weapons in any part of Europe . inspection and control would be much easier to establish in these territories . Mr Healey denounced the government for using double standards . Ministers had rebuked the unaligned nations for not condemning the new Russian tests , but they themselves had no condemnation for events in Angola or Algeria . it was not for the government , said Mr Healey , to take up moral attitudes , especially when the temple of their religion is the bingo-parlour . this puzzled such students of comparative religion as had failed to detect this cult . but Mr Healey had a partial and limited success . he rallied behind him the left-wing opinion so coolly snubbed last night by his leader , Mr Gaitskell . scorn merited . Mr Godber &apos;s speech . Mr Godber &apos;s performance merited all the mild scorn heaped on it by Mr Shinwell . true , he did tell the House that the government had asked the medical research council to reassess the fall-out position in view of the Russian tests , and said that the council &apos;s findings would be published . he was not so happy in his defence of the government &apos;s failure to condemn France for her nuclear tests in the Sahara on the grounds that they were only little ones . this was too reminiscent of the nursemaid and her illegitimate baby . for the most part , Mr Godber muttered his way through a cliche-ridden foreign office brief . he resembles the elephant seal , an otherwise endearing creature whose articulation is limited , we are told , to a series of heavy sighs . M.P.s protest at embassy . Russian tests . by our political staff . Sir Lynn Ungoed-Thomas , M.P for Leicester N.E , a former labour Solicitor-General , and Mrs Barbara Castle , M.P for Blackburn , a member of the labour party national executive , delivered a letter to Mr Soldatov , the Russian Ambassador , last night protesting against the Russian nuclear tests . it was signed by 60 labour M.P.s , many of them left-wing sympathisers . it condemned the pollution of the world &apos;s atmosphere as a crime against humanity . a personal letter of protest against the tests from Canon Collins , chairman of the campaign for nuclear disarmament , addressed to Mr Khruschev , was also taken to the Russian embassy . mass lobbying . a political correspondent writes : ban-the-bomb demonstrators thronged the central lobby of the House of Commons last night and formed a queue stretching for more than 200 yards outside in Old Palace Yard . about 2,000 lobbied M.P.s and harangued them on disarmament . 