LEAD NOT NEEDED

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 75, 30 March 1939, Page 8

LEAD NOT NEEDED

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —Regarding the remarks of Mr. Hamilton at Te Awamutu on Defence, Mr. Hamilton should be the last person to make a statement that the present Government is not genuinely and sufficiently enthusiastic in its approach to the question of defence. I would ask Mr. Hamilton to remember that his party was a party who assisted to wreck the defence system of New Zealand when they voted to cut out compulsory service about six years back. What is Mr. Hamilton and his party prepared to give towards defence? We know that there is a class of people who squeal about defence and do nothing while others give their time for military service. Would Mr. Hamilton explain what he means by his statement regarding organisations worthy of a rabble?

Statements like that made by Mr. Hamilton do more harm than good, as they give other nations the impression that we are not prepared for defence, and that our country would be easy to invade. The present Government has done more for defence in three years than the previous Government had done in seventeen years, and I consider that the Government and Defence Staff deserve credit for what has been done. —I am, etc.,

DIGGER.