"QUITE ADEQUATE."

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 282, 29 November 1938, Page 8

"QUITE ADEQUATE."

The New Zealand Defence Lenguo, at a conference a fortnight ago, resolved unanimously to advocate the reintroduction of compulsory military training. The Minister of Defence, reiterating the Government's policy on this matter, says the force now being trained is " quite adequate," because the British authorities, "•• recently as the last Imperial Conference," held th« view that neither Australia nor New Zealand had more to fear than a raid. This, as the Minister added, is a matter of opinion, but it is pertinent to remark that a great deal has happened since the last Imperial Conference, and even in the last two months. These happenings have had the effect in Britain, in the United States, in the Dutch East Indies, in Australia (to mention only a few countries), of compelling the authorities to revise their views of defence necessities. In Australia there was announced, only last April, a defence expansion programme estimated to cost £43,000,000. Last week it was reported on good authority that this large programme is being revised again, and it may now cost £60,000,000, or possibly £70,000,000. The Australian Government may bo presumed to have been in (ouch with expert British opinion, and much morn recently than the date of the lost Imperial Conference. The Minister's statement as to the adequacy of the present force is therefore not conclusive. But even it' a foree of 9000 were adequate, it could only be so if it were at full strength and highly trained. At present it is neither.