NATIONAL SERVICE

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29713, 5 January 1962, Page 9

NATIONAL SERVICE

Warning By General

(N Z.P.A. -Reuter— Copyright) SYDNEY, January 4. The war-time commander of Australia's Bth Division in Malaya. Lieutenant - General Gordon Bennett, said today a national service training scheme should be reintroduced immediately. He said that Australia "would not last 10 minutes” if attacked from the north by an Asian Power. Australia should also seek atomic weapons from Britain or America, he told reporters. "Australia has no defence at all in the north;” he said "Our first line of defence, the Air Force, is very weak at present We have no Army, apart from a token force assigned to 5.E.A.T.0." S.E.A.T.O. was only a “police force,” and was never intended to defend Australia in the event of an attack. “We are in no danger from Indonesia at the moment, but when she gets a little more uppish she could flirt with Russia. If Indonesia became a Communist base, Australia then would be in danger,” he said. Return of Troops In Melbourne today, the Leader of the Federal Opposition (Mr Arthur Calwell) repeated his demand for the return of Australian troops from Malaya. He said in a press statement that the people should be told if any secret agreement existed between Commonwealth countries to keep troops in Malaya. “In view of the attitude of the Prime Minister of Malaya, Tunku Abdul Rahman, why the insistence that they should remain?” Mr Calwell asked. “The purpose for which they were ostensibly sent to Malaya has been fulfilled.” The mounting crisis over West New Guinea underlined the need for defence prepar-edness-just as it emphasised again the “parlous condition” in which the Menzies Government had left the defence of Australia.