If War Should Come

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 80, 5 April 1938, Page 7

If War Should Come

Need for Organisation For Defensive Purposes PLEA FOR NATIONAL SECURITY Per Press Association. DUNEDIN, Last Night. The importance of the community being organised in the event of war, particularly if an attacking force landed in New Zealand, was emphasised by Dr. C. M. Grecnsiade when speaking at a meeting of the recently-formed Territorial Association to-day. “I think it is useless just ‘giving guns to boys to play at soldiers,’ ” Dr. Greenslade said when referring to the present Territorial system. “This association should set out to interest the whole of the community in the defence of the country, because it is necessary that everyone should be organised for defensive purposes,” he continued. “The Government appears to be intent on providing social security, but Ave want national security, and until we get that everything else is of secondary importance. “When the Army of Occupation entered Germany at the end of the war we found the civilian population absolutely organised, and there were few difficulties in the administration of the occupied areas. Any part of New Zealand that was attacked would have to submit peacefully, and how much better it would be to submit as an organised community than as a disorganised rabble.”