Acting on the requests and the Base Commander's report, by 12 November the Minister of Defence approved a resumption of military efforts.[16] He defended the decision in the senate, explaining why the soldiers were necessary to combat the serious agricultural threat of the large emu population.[4] Although the military had agreed to lend the guns to the Western Australian government on the expectation that they would provide the necessary people, Meredith was once again placed in the field due to an apparent lack of experienced machine gunners in the state.[2]