EMPIRE DEFENCE

Greymouth Evening Star, 6 August 1946, Page 9

EMPIRE DEFENCE

HEAVY EXPENDITURE BY DOMINIONS NEW ZEALAND’S SHARE (P.A.) AUCKLAND, Aug. 5. New Zealand should spend far more on her defence than she had ever spent before, and more than the country had ever thought it would be necessary to spend, in the opinion of Mr. D. F. C. Saxton, 'managing editor of the Taranaki Daily News, who arrived by flying-boat to-day after attending the Empire Press Union conference in London. Mr. Saxton, who subsequently visited France, Belgium. Holland, and Germany, said defence was something that could be shelved only at the Dominion’s peril. The Dominions, although they had made token contributions in peace, mid comparatively substantial efforts in the war, had in the.past relied primarily upon Britain for their defence, Mr. Saxton said. The drain on Britain’s resources during the second World War had made it unfair and impossible for her to continue the task, and the Dominions must fend for themselves. Membership of the British Commonwealth entailed a responsibility as well as a privilege. The logical solution seemed regional defence schemes, in which various nations and colonies grouped themselves on a broad geographical basis, and in which Britain would participate to a reasonable limit of her resources, he continued. On this basis, New Zealand would probably he attached to the south-west-Pacific grouping, including Australia, and with its focal point at Singapore. Heavy expenditure on defence was never popular with the people in time ot peace, especially just after a war, but the realities of the situation were plainly apparent throughout the world. Mr. Saxton said no New Zealander who spent a little time on the Continent to-day, or who tested the atmosphere, sentiment, and undercurrents in the Middle and Far East, would have any doubt about the proper course. UNO and the general conception of a League of Nations were ideals to be striven for with patience, but at this stage the only method of ensuring peace was to keep stiong enough to prevent aggression. These requirements would.involve spending on a scale that might shock the people, he concluded. It would mean thinking of annual defence budgets in terms of tens of millions of pounds, but any government that lacked the courage to tell the people the trend, and to act accordingly, would fail in its trust. This was the only true form of national security, without which social security would be worthless.