Defence White Paper ‘vital’

Press, 14 June 1978, Page 2

Defence White Paper ‘vital’

I PA Wellington The time the Government is taking to produce a White Paper on defence has been criticised in a report to the Dominion council of the Returned Services’ Association.

The chairman of the R.S.A. defence, rehabilitation, and subversive elements sub-committee (Mr. R. A. Banks) said in his annual report that the last year had been “largely one of frustration.”

“In spite of repeated requests, and in spite of repeated assurances at Ministerial level, we still await a statement of the Government’s defence policy,” he said.

“We have been pressing for some considerable time for a White Paper, and have several times been advised that a statement would be issued. “But to date we have no clear indication as to the future of our defence policy, nor the direction in which the future of our Armed Forces lies,” said Mr Banks. It was absolutely essential that the Armed Forces be kept informed about their future, he said. “Morale will suffer if no

clear statement is made about the reasons for their existence, the standards to which they must aspire, the worth of what they are doing, and whether they are to be given the tools to carry out the tasks for which they are being trained. “We are well aware of the economic stresses and strictures which we are all facing,” said Mr Banks. “However, once a policy has been set, once the targets have been determined, nothing must be allowed to interfere with the attainment and maintenance of those targets. “As members of the Returned Services’ Association we are only too well aware of the results of unpreparedness, and our Armed Forces must be completely equipped with both manpower and strikepower to be able to carry out with efficiency tasks which may be allotted to them,” Mr Banks said.

“Economic circumstances must therefore play no part in deciding ‘yea’ or ‘nay’ when the whole of our country’s security is at stake, irrespective of which political party is in office,” he said.