IMPERIAL DEFENCE

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 260, 30 July 1937, Page 10

IMPERIAL DEFENCE

New Zealand’s Quest For Information DISCUSSIONS IN LONDON Discussions he had at Home with the authorities there on the question of defence were referred to by the Prime Minister, Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage, in a statement yesterday. He said that the New Zealand representatives had collected all the information available as to how the Dominion could best serve in a Commonwealth policy of defence. New Zealand had to lie part and parcel of an Empire scheme. Mr. Savage said he met the Chiefs of Staffs,, including the First Sea Lord, and discussed with them the general question of defence. He told the First Sea Lord it was no good New Zealand spending money, on defence unless she could spend it intelligently, and that he was anxious to know what policy to adopt. “I said to him that if we had to defend New Zealand alone we could not develop sufficient strength to pull a herring off a grid-iron,” said Mr. Savage. “Those are the very words I used. “I said it was a question of doing the best for New Zealand, and at the same time fitting into a Commonwealth policy of defence. We wanted as much information as we could get about the question. They were a bit dubious about giving it, because they felt they might be blamed for trying to interfere with or trying to influence Government policy. I told them there was no need to worry about that. We wanted the information; we wanted some idea of the best way of co-operating our three services; we wanted a proper balance between the three services. Relationship of Services.

“I pointed out that we desired something accurate regarding the relationship of the various branches of the services. We were supplied with figures by Colonel Puttick and Captain Morgan, who acted as our advisers, but they were not sufficient to satisfy the heads in the Old Country. "All that we asked for,” continued Mr. Savage, “was a frank opinion on how to spend the money and what relationship should exist between the various branches of the service. Scant' people thought that New Zealand could be defended only from the air, and others thought it would be a mistake to confine it to the air, and there were advocates of the land forces. We wanted frank advice about the question. “I made it known that we were concerned about the part the Navy would play, and the reply I received to that was: ‘Circumstances would have to decide what would be the best thing to do, but it is common sense to suppose that the two cruisers on the New Zealand station would remain—their place would bq in New Zealand waters.’ They pointed out that they could not be dogmatic. Their policy was the same as ours. They had to defend the British Commonwealth, and all they wore asking for was the co-operation of the British Dominions in a common scheme of defence. Properly Balanced Scheme. “We have now discussed the position with the heads of the Services in the Old Country, and we will have their frank opinion as to whether we arc right in what we are supposed to do,” said Mr. Savage. “I told them that we had the responsibility of seeing that our defence was on a proper basis and that it was properly balanced.’’ Mr. Savage remarked that the air was the coining thing, and everyone realised that the Navy was just as necessary to-day as ever—in fact, it was more necessary. After having all the evidence in front of it, the Government would discuss whatever changes were to bo made. At the present time It had a committee working along the lines of the Committee of Imperial Defence at Home. Referring to the Singapore Base,'the Prime Minister said that no one could say precisely what would happen in a War that would involve the East and the West, but there was no doubt that those in control at Home realised that the Singapore Base must play a big part, in the defence of the British Commonwealth, and the idea of any substantial fleet coming to Australia and New Zealand while the Singapore Base was there was not within the bounds Of possibility. “Some say it might be possible for a fleet to get there, but no one can say how it is going to get away again,” he said.