NO COMPULSION.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 228, 27 September 1938, Page 10

NO COMPULSION.

RECRUITING IN N.Z.

FOR SERVICE OVERSEAS.

ATTITUDE OF GOVERNMENT.

(By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.)

NAPIER, this day

Now Zealand's defences in the light of possible consequences of a European crisis were briefly dealt with by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Hon. W. E. Barnard, in the course of an election address.

Mr. Barnard referred also to the matter of conscription, and, speaking for the Government, he gave an assurance that there would be no compulsion in the recruiting of men for service over-

"The only likely threat to New Zealand's safety in the event of war would be from sudden raids by warships, probably equipped with aeroplanes," said Mr. Barnard. "Whether that proves so or not. New Zealand, as part of the Empire, will co-operate to the full if the Empire is attacked.

"The position is entirely different from ]!)14. It is not possible to-day to send away a great body of men. In 1!»14 Japan was our friend and next time she may not be.

"If it becomes advisable to send men away they will go as volunteers, and there certainly will be no compulsion so far as this Government is concerned. It seems that it is no longer possible to do as we did between 1914 and 1918, and send large bodies of troops to the ends of the earth."

Mr. Barnard added that the New Zealand Government in the field of naval improvement had done everything recommended to it by the supreme naval authority, the, British Admiralty. At the same time extensive reorganisation of military requirements, including the provision of strong coastal defences, had also been undertaken ,and at the moment energetic steps were being taken to bring up to minimum strength a territorial force designed to serve as a nucleus of a defensive land force