NAVAL DEFENCE

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 39, 14 August 1926, Page 11

NAVAL DEFENCE

(To the Editor.) Sir,—ln your political notes of Saturday my attention was drawn to the report o: a verbal passage of arras between Mr. J. A. Lee (Auckland East) and the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Ward, in which the former said that Sir Joseph Ward was a "Jingo--Ist" and "a shrieker after greater army and navy expenditure." May I ask: How does Mr. J. A. Lee expect New Zealand to defend herself, in the event of war in the Pacific, if she has no sufficient and efficient army and navy? I have before me the report in the "Post" of 2nd August of the "Pan-Asian Congress," in which Japan, China, Korea, India, Philippines, and Afghanistan demand "racial equality and denouncing .white domiuatidn." I think it is generally realised, or if not it ought to be, that there is a latent hatred of Black and Yellow races for the White race. This latent antagonism has been aggravated by the anti-Asiatic immigration laws of America and the White Australia policy. The inflammatory speeches which took place at Nagasaki may only be a "grouch" against anti-Asiatic laws, but should not be ignored by the British colonies in the Pacific, for the "grouch" may grow into a real menace. Again I ask Mr. Lee: What, in the event of a war against an Asiatic nation, with a full-powered navy, up-to-date equipment, and unknown resources, will our present colonial army and navy avail us? Our own Grand Fleet is twelve thousand odd miles away The Singapore Base-is, as yet, incomplete, and Australia and New Zealand's combined fleet consists of six cruisers and a dozen or less smaller craft! Therefore, I say, let our Government parties join hands and be united on this one point—Defence! —I am, etc., G. C. TALBOT.