DEFENCE OF THE DOMINION.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 58, Issue 299, 29 September 1938, Page 6

DEFENCE OF THE DOMINION.

ANNOUNCEMENT WHEN NEEDED. STATEMENT BY PREMIER. (Per Press Association.) DUNEDIN, September 28. A denial that he had received to-day a message of sensational importance concerning the international situation was given by the Prime Minister (the Et. Hon. M. J. Savage) in an interview to-night. Mr Savage said that the information he had received from Europe was very much in accord with that published in the newspapers, and he was not in a position to make any fresh announcement on the position. The Prime Minister refused to discuss what measures might bo taken in New Zealand in the event of war. The Council of Defence had been considering the position all along, and its plans were ready. He was not prepared to discuss what might happen in certain eventualities, but would wait until those eventualities occurred before announcing any action that might lie taken. Mr Savage declined to say whether or not the election would be proceeded with in the event of war breaking out, although he gave the impression that preparations for the election bad now gone so far that there would be no point in putting them off. Hopes for peace were not yet completely exhausted, he said, and there was no doubt that everyone would wish that war might yet be averted.