DEFENCE OF NEW ZEALAND

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 265, 5 August 1937, Page 10

DEFENCE OF NEW ZEALAND

Statement Promised By Minister GOVERNMENT ALIVE TO RESPONSIBILITIES By Telegraph—Press Association. Invereargill, August 4. A statement on the Government’s defence policy in New Zealand will be made by the Minister of Defence, Hon. F. Jones, within the next week or 10 days. This announcement was made by Mr. Jones at a luncheon to-day by the Invercargill Returned Soldiers’ Association. “I am sorry I cannot tell you just now what is being done about the land forces,” he said, “because I am not in a position to release the statement. We realise that we have not had satisfaction in the past with our land forces, and when I say that I am casting no reflection on the staffs, who have been carrying on very well in the face of difficulties. “I hope to make a statement within a week or 10 days about the land services in New Zealand, and the Government will bear in mind the necessity for the closest co-operation between the three services. This Government is fully alive to its responsibilities from a defence point of view.” Mr. Jones also made an appeal to employers to show tbeir practical sympathy with the work for the defence of New Zealand by placing no obstacle in the way of young men who wanted to go into camp. He suggested that where possible their sympathy should take a practical form by allowing their employees full pay while they were in training.