The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. TUESDAY, JUKE 14, 1938. "A TEMPTING BAIT."

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 138, 14 June 1938, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun.

TUESDAY, JUKE 14, 1938. "A TEMPTING BAIT."

For the cause that tacks assistance, For the tcrony that needs resistance For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do.

Lord Rothermere has been informing t-lie millions of readers of his newspapers that "New Zealand will be one of the most vulnerable countries in the world when Japan has beaten China." This sort of warning might be impressive if the Dominion were situated a few hundred miles from Japan, instead of a few thousand miles, but New Zealanders are surely entitled to take consolation from the thought that their geographical isolation tvorrP every land-mass except Australia has advantages as well as disadvantages. For Lord Rothermere does not speak in general terms of the Dominion's danger. He sees a specific danger. "New Zealand is a very tempting bait, as its area and climate are very suitable for Japanese settlement .on a large scale." Disregarding the important fact that the Japanese, despite their population pressure, have not shown themselves to be one of the world's great migratory races, we may mention that their "settlement" of New Zealand "on a large scale" "would not be without its difficulties, even if none were put in their way by our inhospitable selves. There would be the difficulty of transportation. Remembering how many ships were needed to transport the relatively small number of New Zealand and Australian troops to Europe,' how many ships would the Japanese need to withdraw from commerce to make even a beginning with a large-scale settlement of New Zealand?

It is not easy, in reading the cabled summary of Lord Rothermere's article, to. discern lvliat it is that lie wishes to prove, but apparently lie is trying, in a sensational and roundabout way, to tell his readers that New Zealand is not spending enough on defence. There are many people in New Zealand who also hold that view, but they would wish it to be supported with better arguments than Lord Rothermere's. To say that Britain's expenditure on defence will be 40 per cent of her revenue, while New Zealand's will bo only 2} per cent of hers, is to prove nothing except—■■ what is' obvious—that Britain has enormously greater responsibilities, and feels herself to be in greater peril than New Zealand. But Lord Rothermere says the comparison "supports the argument that a Parliamentary democracy cannot .arm." Is not Britain arming, on a colossal scale, and is Britain not a Parliamentary democracy 1 It seems that Mr. Savage was invited, by telephone,, to . reply to Lord' Rothermere. .. In the circumstances he mayibe excused for making :his comment short and blunt. .'"<S >r >-y"