The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, JULY 30, 1941. DOMINION’S WAR EFFORT.

Evening Star, Issue 23950, 30 July 1941, Page 6

The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, JULY 30, 1941. DOMINION’S WAR EFFORT.

The Minister of Defence (the Hon. F. Jones) spoke no more than the truth when, in his survey of the measures taken by the Government to strengthen New Zealand’s fighting services, he said that the steps taken .to protect the Dominion’s front line were justified by what had been seen during the last few months. It has always been realised that New Zealand’s most advanced defence lines lie thousands of miles overseas, where our soldiers, sailors, and airmen have been fighting side by side with men from other parts of the far-flung British Empire against the common foe. Yet there is unquestionably another front line in the Pacific, and it has been in preparation to man it that local industry has been busy adding to the increasing quantities of importations from overseas. At a time like the present, when the possibility cannot be overlooked that New Zealand may' have to help to defend the Empire by defending herself, it is reassuring to hear from Mr Jones that good progress has been made in building up the coastal defences, that field artillery is almost up to war establishment, and that machine-gun and mortar stocks are being increased in a satisfactory manner. The early arming of the Home Guard with medium machine-guns will in largo measure recompense a body of volunteers who have been both diligent and-patient in the performance of their training.

The number of men in New Zealand who have received at least three months’ training since the outbreak of war is given by the Minister as 73,000, including both Expeditionary and Territorial Force men, but not the 7,000 who. are training with the National Military Reserve in their spare time. Mention of these reservists acts as a reminder of the readiness with which veterans of the last war have offered themselves for duty once more. In many other units the services of returned! soldiers as instructors are proving most valuable. New Zealand is also playing an adequate part on the sea and in the air. Among the illuminating statistics prepared by the Defence Minister in this connection is the figure of over 30,000 given as the number of applications for enlistment in the E.N.Z.A.F. During the last war such numbers would have been referred to only where bodies of infantrymen were concerned. Without a doubt the Dominion has done and is doing well both in the field' overseas and in organisation for home defence. The claim of Mr Jones that wo are doing as much as. if not more than, other countries is borne out by a Christchurch visitor to Australia, who recently stated that while in the Commonwealth he had no need to feel ashamed of New Zealand’s war effort. All that remains now is to maintain and, if possible, increase the national enthusiasm for complete and speedy victory. Mr Churchill’s warning to the British people against the danger of a relaxation of vigilance should also be heeded here.