MONEY ON DEFENCE

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 19, 22 July 1939, Page 10

MONEY ON DEFENCE

WHAT N.Z. HAS DONE

DROMES & AIR-MINDEDNESS

(By Air Mail—From "The Post's" London Representative.)

LONDON, June 29

Addressing the British , Empire League, Mr. Nash said that since 1935 New Zealand had increased its expenditure on defence from £957,000 to £3.000,000. He referred to the "amazing" work that had been accomplished in the Dominion in building aerodromes. In 1936, when the Government had not desired that it should be known that military aerodromes were being erected, the cost had been charged against the civil vote. He declared that considerable credit was due to the Government in its defence preparations during the past three years, and that some critics of the public works programmes would do well to take that factor into account. Mr. Nash said that the air-minded-ness among the young people in the Dominion was greater than that to be found in other countries, and he mentioned the agreement recently announced by Sir Kingsley Wood, British Air Minister, that 1300 trained pilots would be sent to Britain annually in the event of war.

He also declared that no country outside the United Kingdom had made a greater contribution to the defence of the Commonwealth, and he added that the New Zealand Government felt that the Dominions as a whole had not made the contribution towards the defence of the Commonwealth since the vvav that they could have done had they the will.