Military Training

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28671, 22 August 1958, Page 3

Military Training

Sir,—Mr Kerr and M.T. seem to forget that in a free country there tend to be sojne people who believe they should be free—free to fight or not to fight According to whether they think a war is right or wrong. These odd types want to know what a possible war is going to be about, what it is likely to prove or solve. 1,, for instance, have read “Mein Kampf” and believe Hitler was nearly 100 per cent, wrong and had to be fought. Unfortunately, I do not disagree with more than about 50 per cent, of,communism. I believe half of my fellow New Zealanders feel roughly the same way. Unlike Mr Kerr and M.T., they have a shocking inability to see things in terms of black and white. And, in this uncertainty, they would like to see more interest in preventing and less in preparing for a largely pointless war.—Yours, etc., M. D. SADLER. August 19, 1958.

Sir, —Being one of New Zealand’s first ever conscripts, I find the letters of Gavin J. H. Kerr and M.T. as being in harmony with the old puttee and brass button era. However, in the realm of modernistic war equipment, based upon conscription, how New Zealand could stand the taxation on such a meagre population beats me. If, for instance, your two correspondents were to be called upon to provide annual taxation on £3 million for one modern cruiser alone, and about the same for one brigade of modern guns, they would soon realise that our Budget costs would be up five times as . much. Or do they suppose, as so many other simple people, that it could all be done merely on a ransom basis for our butter, wool, and meat? Dear me, how the big armaments combines would ridicule that idea. Yours, etc., R. M. THOMSON. . August 19, 1958. [After S. H. Fournier and “Individualist’’ have replied, if they wish, this correspondence will be closed. —Edr, “The “Press.”]