POTENTIAL THREAT TO DOMINION

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 69, Issue 50, 8 December 1948, Page 4

POTENTIAL THREAT TO DOMINION

Country Should Be Aware of Danger WARNING BY PRESIDENT OF R.S.A. (P.A.) DUNEDIN, December 7. “It is the duty of those who have served in both wars to see that conditions of service are maintained, for that is the only hope of survival for our children and grandchildren. It is their duty to see that Australia and New Zealand are well defended; we cannot expect to hold this territory beyond 1930; we can do so only if we increase our joint populations to 50,000,000 and are well prepared—then we would have a sporting chanced’ With these words Major-General Sir Howard Kippenberger, Dominion president of the New Zealand Returned Services’ Association, concluded an informal talk to the executive of the Dunedin R.S.A. to-night. “We in Australia and New Zealand think we can continue to occupy without effort two of the most attractive countries in the world. In spite of what people say,” Major-General Kippenberger went on, “this cannot be so. We have some protection in space but the only other protection fei in a rapid increase in population: and in having our economy constantly geared for defence and the people well aware of the dangers in which .they live and who are prepared to face it.”

Speaking of Communism Sir Howard said it was the greatest menace to the way of living and to what people of British stock had worked for for several hundreds of years. It was not Communism, as Communism that was so horrible, but a police state which it ushered in. Within the next few months, he said, we would see Communism established in China. That might be all right for the Chinese but it would not be for us, especially if the Russians got control of that country within the next five years. In Indonesia there were 70,000,000 to 80,000,000 people crowded together. There was Malaya to which Britain had managed to hold and there was India. Altogether there were 1,000,000,000 Asiatics with 72 hours of New Zealand and in Australia and the Dominion there were 10,000,000 people. Those Asiatics could be equipped ready for aggressive war within 25 years.