WAR PLEBISCITE

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 7, 8 July 1938, Page 5

WAR PLEBISCITE

SERVICE OVERSEAS

SUGGESTION RIDICULED

The suggestion made by the Hon. F. E. Lark (Auckland) when moving the Address in Reply in the Legislative Council, that a plebiscite should be taken before a decision was made to send military forces overseas was ridiculed m the Council yesterday by the Hon. W. Hayward (Canterbury). 4

The suggestion might apply very well to a kindergarten school, Mr. Hayward said, but when applied to a nation it would be hard to find a more impracticable notion. It was generally understood that Germany had been preparing for war ever since the last war and there was a definite possibility that England would wake up some morning to find battleships in the Channel and thousands of aeroplanes hovering over London. If Mr. Lark's suggestion were adopted the British Government-would have to send an urgent message to Germany requesting the withdrawal of the attacking forces while a plebiscite was taken. The reply could be imagined.

It had been said that eight thousand homes could be built for tne cost of one battleship, Mr. Hayward said, but what would happen to the occupiers of those homes when another nation attacked. Modern wars began without warning and the only way to be safe was to have a proper defence.