DEFENCE POLICY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 202, 27 August 1935, Page 9

DEFENCE POLICY.

OPPOSITION NOT CONSULTED. MR. JORDAN'S PROTEST. Protest against the omission of the Government to consult the Labour party on defence matters was voiced by Mr. W. J. Jordan, M.P., when speaking at Panmure on Saturday evening at a reunion of ex-servicemen. He stated that although there is a Defence Committee of Parliament of which he is 1 lie senior member, neither he nor any other member of the Opposition had been consulted in the matter of defence. A visit to the Dominion was recently made by Sir Maurice Hankey, who, according to the Press reports, discussed the defence policy of the Dominion with the Minister of Defence, but the Opposition party was not consulted, Mr. Jordan said. The people of the Dominion might have been committed to some agreement. The Minister of Finance was reported as having said in England that strict economy was the secret of the Dominion's success, and that next year he would go on economising, but that he was going to allow more money for defence. Mr. Coates had not said that in the Dominion before he left nor since he returned. Mr. Jordan said that there were men in the Opposition party whose war records and records for national service in all spheres were quite equal to those of the Government Ministers, and they should be taken into the confidence of the Government in matters of national policy, otherwise, in the absence of knowledge of the position, they were justified in strongly opposing any expenditure proposed. "If I am concerned at the position it is because the Government has not had the decency to keep me. or even the Leader of the Opposition informed of the true state of affairs, and I am satisfied that Mr. Savage is as mindful of the welfare of the Dominion as any man in Parliament," said Mr. Jordan. The remarks were applauded heartily by the audience.