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Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 253, 22 July 1936, Page 8

“Practically defenceless” is the position of Auckland, according to an address delivered to Auckland Rotarians this week by Sir George Richardson. He said an enemy aircraft-carrier —a floating aerodrome—could be stationed beyond the horizon out of reach of such port defences as Auckland had and release its aircraft to rain bombs on port and city. Their object, he considered, would not be the murder of civilians, but the destruction of the wharves, oil and other stores. In this way if the sea balance in the Pacific was substantially against us New Zealand could be completely isolated from the outside world by an enemy Power. He invited his hearers to ask themselves the questions whether New Zealand had a defence force likely to prove satisfactory under modern conditions and whether this Dominion could piny its part should the Empire be attacked.