DOMINION WILL DO ITS SHARE

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 112, 4 February 1939, Page 10

DOMINION WILL DO ITS SHARE

In Any Future Crisis MINISTER’S MESSAGE TO OLD COUNTRY Earl Beatty Encouraged An assurance that the Government realized its responsibilities, realized the position the world was in today, and knew that the Navy must keep the trade routes open, was given by the Minister of Defence, Mr. Jones, when referring briefly to the Government’s defence programme at a meeting-addressed by Earl Beatty, chairman of the London executive of the Navy League, in the concert chamber of the Wellington Town Hall last night. Earl Beatty, Mr. Jones said, could go back to the Old Country with the message that New Zealand would do its share in any crisis that might arise. The Minister, on behalf of the Government, warmly welcomed Earl and Countess Beatty to New Zealand, and expressed the hope that they would come back again. Not Finished Yet. “I have been interested in the remarks Earl Beatty has made while in New Zealand,” Mr. Jones said. “During the last three years a great deal has been done in connexion with the development of our naval forces. I can assure you,’-’ he said to Earl Beattv, “that we are not finished yet. We realize that that development has to go on and we have just recently approved of a further programme in connexion with the defence forces of the Dominion. Naval defence takes it share in that programme. Mr. Jones said that the Government trusted that another crisis never would arise, but it realized the importance of the British Navy, and so far as New Zealand defence was concerned it would play its part. Much Encouraged. On rising to speak, Earl Beatty said he was much 'encouraged by what he had just heard from the Minister. “I hope that nothing I say will offen you,” he said, “but believe me when I say that anything that falls from my lips is in the sincere wish to help you in the great task that lies before you. I should like to congratulate the Government on what it has done recently in regard to the defence forces. I fully realize the Minister of Defence has a difficult task in front of him. “But with this congratulation I should like to add the caution'that I feel there is much more to be done, and done rapidly,” Earl Beatty said. ‘•ln these fast-moving days speed is the essence of everything, and I believe that it is the responsibility of Government in these unsettled times to see that security shall come first in Its programme.”