NEW ZEALAND'S DEFENCE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 259, 1 November 1937, Page 6

NEW ZEALAND'S DEFENCE.

POWER OF THE NAVY.

(To the Editor.)

Your leader entitled "Defence and tlie Elector" gives the impression that you consider that war in these parts is a remote possibility, whereas the Federal Prime Minister has stated many times in the plainest possible language that Australia must now be prepared for all eventualities at the earliest possible moment. British influence upon the world was based upon sea power. In narrow seas the Navy is now an ineffective instrument. Sea power has therefore lost most of its significance. A war of tariffs is more potent thnn a war of guns. The British Empire, which in pre-war days was a free trade Empire, where all nations could buy and sell on equal terms, is 7iow a tariff-bound territory, in which nations outside the Empire are at a considerable disadvantage. Japanese economic penetration will extend throughout the Pacific within a very short time, and unless Australia and New Zealand have the cadre or striking force to withstand the guns which will back it up, they must give way before its encroachment. If the (Germans were to strike at France, would they waste time on the Maginot line of fortification? Obviously not. The very strength of France's purely military defences makes it certain that any attack against her will be directed on civilians from the air. So with New Zealand in the face of Singapore. Auckland's first state of war will almost certainly be a bombardment with a mixture of thermite, high explosives and vesicants which will kill numbers outright, will lead to the cutting off of food and water supplies, will smash the system of sanitation and result in igeneral panic. However completely we may New Zealand in the air, it is more than likely that enemy bombers from aircraft carriers, standing five or six hundred miles out at sea, wili get through. If they are permitted to carry out destruction unimpeded, the great danger is that the will of the people to continue the stnif.>g] e; which is the mainspring of victory, will .drive way. If, on the other hand, the searchlights are playing and the guns are banjring, they will not feel that they are the victims of Government incompetence and neglect, as well as of unprovoked aggression, and will be willing to continue the struggle. ENGLAND EXPECTS.

[Our correspondent says that sea power has "lost most of its significance," an assertion for which he will find it difficult to find authoritative support. But he also speaks of the possibility (though he seems to regard it as a certainty) of an aerial bombardment of NewZealand cities by "enemy bombers from aircraft carrier*, standing five or six hundred miles out at sea." How could these ships and their aircraft reach the vicinity of New Zealand without the protection of a considerable naval force? How could they be maintained and return to their home ports (possibly thousands of miles distant) unless their nation possessed "sea power"? As to the effects of bombing civil populations, our, correspondent may be commended to consider the example of Madrid, and also to read the opinions, recently published, of Professor J. B. S. Haldane, who has practical experience a-s well as theoretical knowledge. Our correspondent writes of the dire consequences which might be expected if enemy bombers were "permitted to carry out destruction unimpeded." The main purpose of strengthening the coastal batteries and the Air Force is to ensure that such attacks shall not be "unimpeded."—Ed.]