The Gisborne Herald. IN WHICH IS INCORPORATED "THE TIMES." GISBORNE, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1948. DEFENCE OBLIGATIONS OF THE DOMINIONS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22571, 26 February 1948, Page 4

The Gisborne Herald. IN WHICH IS INCORPORATED "THE TIMES." GISBORNE, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1948. DEFENCE OBLIGATIONS OF THE DOMINIONS

That Great Britain’s defence lines are growing still thinner is made evident through the latest tidings of reductions in the strength of the Royal Navy. The new cuts in her naval forces in active commission mean that Britain will have no operational battleships in any part of the world. As far as can be gathered from recent information she will maintain in the Pacific area only two. or at the most, three cruisers, while outside home waters the worldwide duties of the Royal Navy will have to be borne by a total of four small aircraft-carriers and 11 cruisers. This withering away of what was for generations the most powerful navy on the seas is a measure of Britain’s desperate need to conserve money and man-power. It is also an indication of the extent to which the Dominions must increase their contribution to the common defence plan if dangerous weaknesses are to be averted. Even if there is truth in the claim that there is no likelihood of a major war for “some years.’’ the strategic defence of the British Commonwealth cannot be allowed to fall into disrepair. We have learned to our cost that security cannot be improvised at short notice. The first consideration as it should appear to New Zealanders is not the Defence Department’s “squatting” on empty service hutments which could be used during the next, few years for housing homeless people, but the organising of facilities for the universal spare-time training of youths and young men with no previous experience in the forces either during the war or in the course of the present occupation of Japan. Lieutenant-General Robertson, Commander-in-Chief of the forces in Japan, declined to answer a question put. to him by an Auckland newspaper man as to whether New Zealand should have a territorial force, either voluntary or compulsory, but he gave a clear enough indication of what he thought when he added: “Although we all hope there will never be another war, history lias proved that after any major conflict it is wise to start slowly building with the new generation for future wars. The way to start building is through a training organisation, which means the provision of an expert staff with all technical advisers and scientists incornorated in it.” Since it is hardly to be expected that an expert training staff will remain truly expert for long unless it lias large numbers of men and plenty of modern equipment to handle, it follows that the sooner some form of universal military training is introduced in New Zealand the sooner the country will feel that it is doing its bit towards the preservation of British Comonwealth security. When considered against the background of international tensions, the leisurely progress—if progress there has been at all—made with the Dominion’s defence programme is disquieting. It is to be hoped that the regular exchange of visits which the Minister of Defence, Mr. Jones, says are being arranged between the New Zealand Chiefs of Staff and the Commandcrs-in-Chicf, Far East, will mean the introduction of a new and energetic training policy for the Dominion.