DEFENCE AND VITAL PROBLEMS

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 139, 7 March 1936, Page 10

DEFENCE AND VITAL PROBLEMS

New Zealand Policy PRIME MINISTER FAVOURS EMPIRE CONFERENCE A round-table conference between representatives of the British Commonwealth of Nations on questions of defence and other vital problems is favoured by the Prime Minister, lion. M. J. Savage, who, in an interview yesterday, said that such a conference should lay down a general policy of development. “Naturally I should like to see the conference held in New Zealand,” Mr. Savage continued, “but the wishes of all parties must be considered. A talk on common problems is much needed. At the present time we do not know enough about what Great Britain is doing, and Great Britain does not know enough about what we are doing, and that also applies to other parts of the Empire. For instance, we do not know what they are doing in Australia to any great extent. I notice that there is a possibility, according to a newspaper report, of British Ministers visiting tlie Dominions. If they do come, and come only to express their own ideas about things—which may be capsized when they get back —we won’t get very far. They should have some authority behind them, and some ideas.”

Mr. Savage said that, as he stated once before, the first line of defence should be the population, and that did not mean sending people abroad to struggle for themselves, but it meant a defined policy. When representatives of the British Empire met they should begin at the beginning,' and the beginning meant the filling in of the empty spaces, not with struggling wageearners, but with people using the land and developing industries.