DEFENCE OF AUCKLAND

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 243, 13 October 1936, Page 6

DEFENCE OF AUCKLAND

THE NEED FOR PREPARATION. i L > (To the Editor.) Some few weeks ago the Mayor of Auckland called a meeting of other Mayors and 1 chairmen of local bodies in or<rer to emphasise the necessity of Government action towards increased defences of New .Zealand, and Auck--3 land in particular. A few days later it was disclosed that among the whole of the Auckland City Council's staff there were only six who were members of the New Zealand Terri--1 torial Forces. This is typical of recruiting generally, and it is high time the public realised that so few reliable recruits wcro offering that at parades and camps for the. different units only about 25 per cent of the very small number required to complete tho i present volunteer establishment would bo present. The man about town deludes himself into believing that no Power wants to attack us, and if one did we are so far away that distance alone would give protection. We. : trust that this is so. But is there any danger? Unfortunately, the answer must be "Yes." We will be told in our Press one day that a naval squadron of some foreign Power is to pay us a friendly visit. The squadron will arrive, and while stea-ming up the harbour war will be declared. The squadron's bombing aeroplanes will then proceed leisurely but systematically to distribute eggs of destruction, two each on such strategic points as Orakei sewer line, King's wharf power station, Penrose sub-station, Welleslcy Street automatic telephone exchange, the railway bridge over the Orakei Basin and that over Beach Road, while the hangars at Hobsonville and the water supply dam at Nihotupu would also receive attention. Meanwhile torpedoes would account for H.M. ships Achilles, Dunedin, Wellington and Leith and the dock gates. Thus some sixteen bombs and three or four torpedoes would cripple Auckland. Some merchant ships from the same foreign Power could be timed to arrive at zero hour and would land a human cargo to hold Auckland indefinitely. Have we any means of defence in Auckland? This time the answer is "No." At Hobsonville there are six quite good bombing machines which haven't yet dropped a bomb or fired a machine gun bullet", housed in an exceedingly conspicuous hangar whose doors take one minute to open by electrical machinery, but are impossible to open by hand; at Devonport the Navy could no doubt come into action within ten minutes or so, and the skeleton week-end watch would die gloriously or sink with their ships; at Takapuna, "two anti-aircraft guns, which haven't been used yet, and which number about a two-hundredtli part of the number i required to defend an isolated area such as the naval base, could be brought into action by the picket, if there were any ammunition. Is there anything being done about this terrible state of affairs ? DEFENDER.