DEFENCE TOPICS

Evening Star, Issue 22277, 2 March 1936, Page 15

DEFENCE TOPICS

QUARTERDECK AND PARADE GROUND [By Sam Bkownk.] CARSP DATES February 29-March 7.—l2th Field Battery. Sutton. March 30-ApriJ 6.—lst Battalion, the Otago Regiment, Waianakarua. 12TH BATTERY TRAINING AT SUTTCN Officers and other ranks forming the 12th Field Battery left Dunedin on Saturday morning for Sutton, where they are at present undergoing annual field training. A course of instruction similar to that imparted to the 14th Battery a few weeks ago will be undergone. ■ The camp site was vacated on the day of the battery's arrival by the Otago" University Medical Company which has spent'a, week there. OTAGO REGIMENT ALL RANKS PREPARE FOR CAMP The annual camp of the Ist Battalion, the Otago Regiment, will be held at Waianakarua in four weeks' time, and all sub-units in Dunedin, Oamaru, and Port Chalmers are actively preparing for tin's the most important week in the year's syllabus. The Dunedin portion continues to parade at the brill Hall on Monday evenings, preparing its equipment for the camp. The Port Chalmers platoon also paraded, this unit spending the evening preparing its Lewis guns for a shoot to be held in the near future. On Saturday, March 14, the Port Chalmers platoon will hold a field clay, full instructions in this connection being issued on the parade next Monday evening. DEFENCE, BUT NOT DEFIANCE PRINCIPLE OF COLLECTIVE SEGURITY Tn an armed community, once the respect for law and order begins to crumble, the man who is unarmed or only weakly armed can have very little say when troubles arise, for nobody would take, much notice of him. So it is with nations in the larger world.

When peace is secure, there is no obvious immediate need for weapons, but let peace be threatened and relative strengths 'of all parties concerned will quickly be assessed and attitudes taken up accordingly. Britain, the strongest Power in the world after the late war, disarmed in the interests of peace, the only nation to do so with any claim to thoroughness. Now, nearly 17 years after, she finds herself, in the face of serious unrest among the other nations, with “ only about half a Navy, a very small Army, and, recently, a small Air Force,” as the First Lord of the Admiralty, Sir Bolton-Eyres Monsell, put it, in a speech reported in a cable message. “ It it monstrous,” he added, “ to expect our soldiers, sailors, and airmen to fight without up-to-date weapons. We must remedy the deficiency in order to be able to participate in any request dor collective socuritv.” This latter sentence stresses the real point, which the First Lord confirmed in his final statement that “an adequate British Navy would give security to oue-lonrth of the world, making Britain’s greatest contribution to peace.” Bitter experience has shown the danger of being forced into war through the assumption abroad of Britain’s weakness and then of having to build up a fighting force in the teeth of attack. The First Lord refers to history and blames the British people for letting the Navy down, but history has never shown Britain or the Empire slow to answer a righteous call to arms. It is the duty of Governments themselves, which have information unavailable to- the general public, to take the lead in time and see that The country’s defences are in order. Ine old motto, “ Defence, not Defiance, certainly holds good to-day.