BRITISH NAVY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 173, 24 July 1934, Page 3

BRITISH NAVY.

[ - OUR ONLY SHIELD. I. "EMPTY COUNTRIES'" DANGER IMMIGRATION ADVOCATED. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.! WELLINGTON, this clay, tl "In the circumstances in which we - are placed ourselves, I cannot under- , stand any New Zealander who looks at * the world with seeing eyes failing to i recognise our debt to the Bi itish Navy, , but from time to time, so far from 1 tins debt being recognised, hostility Is f shown by New Zealanders to any form 2 of military or naval effort," said Mr. «I. B. Callaii, K.C'., in an address to the Wellington branch of the Navy League. J The New Zealand Government liarl i announced a slight increase in the 1 expenditure for defence purposes, said ; Mr. Callan. A meeting of students of - Victoria University College, represental tive of various college societies, had con--3 demned the Government, and it might be i assumed they would be equally hostile > to the increased vote for air defences which was recently announced in Eng- } land by Mr. Baldwin, and that they were opposed to the maintenance of a strong - navy. ® "J think these particular students aro quite wrong," said Mr. Callan, '"but c they are intensely sincere. They are at the state in life when they are apt to be filled by generous emotions. [t f should never be forgotten that the | students of to-day will in much less [ than ten years' time be the dominant force in the formation of public 1 opinion. The surest way to avoid war is to remove occasions for ill-feeling and jealousy, and in a crowded world empty countries which do not support the proportion of mankind that they ought to support are a jvpctual cause of ill-feeling, and must finally cause an explosion. "What we ought to do is first of all increase our low birth rate, and, second only to that, encourage immigration, whatever discomfort this entails. In the meantime we should support the British Navy, because it is onlv under its powerful protection that we shall bo allowed to have any choice in the matter at all."