Defence choices

Press, 1 September 1982, Page 20

Defence choices

Sir,—Today’s ' editorial article on defence indulges excessively in hyperbole and is the typical hysterical reaction of a conservative press. Any effective attempt to bar trade or to invade us could only be mounted by a major power employing huge naval, air, and

land forces, the scale of which could only arise in the context of a wider and unavoidably nuclear conflagration. In that context A.N.Z.U.S. is irrelevant., and indeed itself represents an invitation to nuclear attack. Socreds new policy is laudable. First, it repudiates nuclear arms, because we will be safer without them. This necessitates repudiation of military ties with nuclear powers, a neutral attitude to them all, and a unilateral nuclear-free zone (enforceable or not). Second, it proposes a realistic defence force based on a trained, disciplined, and loyal population, and on conventional arms compatible with a defence-only commitment and with participation in United Nations peacekeeping roles. — Yours, etc., D. J. O'ROURKE. August 31, 1982.