ORGANISING DEFENCE LEAGUE

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 302, 17 September 1936, Page 12

ORGANISING DEFENCE LEAGUE

Encouraging Support WELLINGTON BRANCH HAS , 400 MEMBERS A meeting to consider further plans for enrolment of members and organisation was held last night by the Wellington branch of the New Zealand Defence League. The chairman was the Hon. W. Perry, M.L.C. Mr Perry said it was most encoutaging to find such an excellent ing. It was evident from the attendance that the movement was growing and growing on a good foundation. There were now at least 400 members of the branch who had paid their subscriptions. The response in Auckland had been most encouraging, a public meeting bad been held in Christchurch last week, and a further branch would be formed in Dunedin. It was now their job to enrol further members. Mr. Perry said. The executive was a provisional one only. They wanted the man in the street to come into this league and take part in its management. Speaking of the European situation, Mr. Perry referred to recent happenings in Egypt and Palestine. If Britain became engaged in those places, then it seemed to him that the opportunity would be open to her enemies elsewhere. The league was concerned about rousing public opinion in New Zealand to the danger which confronted the whole of the British Empire at the present time. They should encourage the territorial system, and let the territorials know that they had public opinion behind them. Similarly with the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve and air force. Antiquated System.

Another speaker said the present .method of training in New Zealand was antiquated. It seemed that we were training for the last stages of the last war. It was like saying to a young man, "Join the Territorials and if there is a war you will be slaughtered.”

If sufficient public interest was aroused in New Zealand they could bring pressure to bear on the Government, a further speaker said. He quoted a southern opinion that the volunteer system was rotten and nothing would make it right. In a country where they had compulsory education and compulsory unionism, the speaker said, it was not too much to expect that they \hould have some form of compulsion to give national training for defence. Sooner or later the league would have to come out in the open in favour of some form of national ■Service —that every man • and every youth should be trained physically. Mr. R. Darrocb said they should have an adequate defence force to support the League of Nations and the collective security system for what it was worth.

Mr. Perry said there was no chance in the wide universe of getting the present Government to adopt compulsory military training. That was a fact that the league had got to recognise.

Detail proposals for organisation work were discussed.