The Dominion THURSDAY, JANUARY 26, 1939. APPEALS FOR NATIONAL SERVICE

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 104, 26 January 1939, Page 10

The Dominion THURSDAY, JANUARY 26, 1939. APPEALS FOR NATIONAL SERVICE

New Zealand radio listeners who heard the relayed broadcast of the British Prime Minister’s appeal for national service and tho§e who studied the Press reports of it, must have been deeply mpressed by its urgency, and not a little disquieted by its implications He does not believe in the inevitableness of war, but he does believe that unless, in present circumstances, the British people are prepare t make ihemselves so strong that others will hesitate provoking hostilities, there may be a very strong possibility of it. This is; oi *g much further than the belief expressed by Lord Strabolgi, the Bntisn Labour peer, at the State luncheon in Wellington on Tuesday, that war is unlikely, and is in closer accord with the realities of the present international situation. . . It is, indeed, impossible on the evidence to write down this situation as eliminating the possibility of war, and it will depend on how i is handled whether it can be kept out of the region of probability. If we accept, as we should, the argument that one of the safeguards against it is adequate preparation for such an emergency, then we must admit that a great deal remains to be done in this country. . But won’t be done if we allow ourselves to be convinced that war is un likely. It is one of the weaknesses of a defence system organized on the voluntary principle that if the public is lulled into a false sense of security by optimistic predictions recruiting is apt to fall away. In the. United Kingdom the nation has become acutely conscious ot the danger of the situation, which has been augmented by the loss of its insularity and the corresponding depreciation in the value ofitsi traditional first line of defence—the sea frontier and the navy. The British Prime Minister, therefore, is in a favourable position for capitalizing the psychology of the situation by appealing to all and sundry for their contribution as citizens to the service of the nation and the strengthening of its defences on the voluntary principle. Recruiting has been brisk but The Times declares that anything short of practically universal response will not suffice—“the nearer the country can get by voluntary methods to universal training and universal service, the less likely are both war and compulsion.” , In Australia the Minister of External Affairs, Mr. W. M. Hughes, is -lending his personal energies to a national recruiting campaign which has every promise of reaching its objective of 70,000 men. The people of our neighbouring Dominibn are more keenly alive to the requirements of the situation than we ourselves appear to be. It is time the New Zealand people took the position, and their responsibilities, more seriously, and the Government displayed more initiative and enterprise in stimulating recruiting.. The British Commonwealth, is in a far, more exposed position than/it was in 1914, and the European situation as inflammable as it was then. “We have got to see, declared Earl Beatty, chairman of the English Navy League, in an interview in Auckland, “that the British Empire as a whole is brought up to proper strength.” Yet here in New Zealand we seem to be unable by voluntary enlistments to bring the strength of our territorial land troops up to the modest requirements of 9000 for a skeleton force.