PARTNERS IN DEFENCE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 28 January 1939, Page 5

PARTNERS IN DEFENCE

AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND The desirability of a close partnership | between Australia and New Zealand in i matters of Empire defence is admitted ' on all sides. The two most distant of I the British Dominions have so many j mutual interests and so many common dangers that divided effort for their protection would be worse than futile. Official opinion has underlined these points, and on paper, at any rate, the partnership is supposed to be in active existence. But comparisons of performance show that New Zealand is acting like a sleeping partner (says the “N.Z. Herald”). The Prime Minister points with pride to the fact that defence expenditure has trebled in three years, but for all that we are spending only a little over £2,000,000 this year on cur own national protection, and endeavouring half-heartedly to raise a Territorial Force of 9000 men. Across the Tasman, the Commonwealth Government, faced with possible perils no graver than those which loom before New Zealand, has shaped a three-year defence programme. involving the expenditure of £63,000,000 and aiming at an increase in the militia strength to 70.000 men. Apart from that Australia is accepting wider Empire responsibilities in the development of a self-contained munitions industry, while she is also establishing output bases as part of the general scheme in which the focal point is Singapore. Some months ago Mr Savage stated that he had informed the heads of the Services in England that “we could not do much on our own account if it came to a ‘shown-down’; we had to be part and parcel of the Commonwealth scheme of defence.” That argument is perfectly sound, but words should be reflected in deeds. There are some very ugly terms which are not infrequently applied to a team who does not “pull his weight.” and the diversion of Government expenditure from unproductive extravagances to planned measures of defence would place New Zealand’s partnership with Australia on a more honest basis.