NO MORE WAR MOVEMENT

Manawatu Times, Volume LIII, Issue 6677, 2 August 1928, Page 9

NO MORE WAR MOVEMENT

To the Editot. - Sir,—ln your generous and accurate report of niy address, delivered at the ‘No More War Meeting’, in the Palace Theatre on July 23, one slight error occurs; .which I. should - he : grateful if you would grant iho the opportunity to correct. I aiu reported to have asked, in reference to the Kellogg Pact * to outlaw war,“Can we hdnettly renounce war, and yet go on spending £3OO, a day preparing for it?” . The sgpro should, of course, bo £3oop._ Now Zealand is spending, roughly, £3OOO a day on preparations for fhturo wars, a sum greater than that which the whole world spends on the League of Nations/, Our system of compulsory military training ‘ alone costs us nearly £I4OO daily, while a further £I6OO goes'on the upkeep’ of our two'cruisers, and on paying off for the gift battleship H.M.S. New .Zealand, which, though it was, scrapped some years ago, wb still hayojto. continue paying for. My question was, “Is a daily expenditure of £3OOO for war preparation- by a ' country; or 1,250,000 inhabitants, consistent with tho signing by that country of a solemn agreement to renounce warfare?” .One 'might-' ask also whether our steadily increasing expenditure on armaments is consistent with the obligation td. reduce armaments which we incurred, when we became a signatory to tile League of Nations ’ Covenant. And the responsibility’lies bn- us," oh the ‘people. Are wo going to be content to. rest in com:

placcnt apathy while solemn pledges given on our behalf- are being broken? Unless w;e, along with the peoples of other signatory countries, insist, that our Governments honor the pbligatipns they have undertaken, pacts ahd'covoh- \ ants will become mere empty forms which, by lulling us into a false sense of security and satisfaction'; will increase rather than dimlnisb jdie appalling menace of another war.—T am, etc., y ALE, W. PAGE, " -. Hon. Sec. N.Z. No More War/Movement., Christchurch, July 30, 1923. ’’ - : . .