WAR AND TRANSPORT

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 68, 17 September 1937, Page 8

WAR AND TRANSPORT

(To the Editor.) Sir, —It was certainly interesting to read the statement issued by the New Zealand Road Transport Alliance, in which it states that there is no apparent probability of our becoming involved in a war at the present time. We people who take an interest in the present trend of international affairs and complications were not by any means surprised when the Prime Minister made the statement "that we might have our communications cut sooner than we thought." It would certainly be a source of satisfaction to know as the Transport Alliance suggests that America would come to our aid and help us to keep our trade routes open in the' event of a hostile force operating in the Pacific. The Transport Alliance seems to be under Uie impression that, because our com- :

munications remained open during the last war we should enjoy the same privilege in the next war. We must not j lose sight of the fact that during the last war we had a valuable friend and ally in Japan. Whether she will be a friend or otherwise in the next war | the British Empire is engaged- in is | a doubtful issue, and our position in New Zealand could be made uncomfortable if the British Fleet were engaged in a life and death struggle for the supremacy of the Mediterranean Sea. We can be assured that Great Britain will not enter a war unless she is forced into it to defend her existence as a nation, especially when her great armament programme is not yet completed. But will hostile Powers who are bursting for expansion be content to wait two or three years?— I am, etc., JUST A READER.