Nelson Evening Mail MONDAY, JANUARY 30, 1939 PREPARATION FOR DEFENCE IMPERATIVE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 30 January 1939, Page 6

Nelson Evening Mail MONDAY, JANUARY 30, 1939 PREPARATION FOR DEFENCE IMPERATIVE

WITHOUT any desire to increase the disquiet that already exists in consequence of developments in Europe, it must be admitted that recent events and the general international outlook make it clearer than ever before that the Hon. W. Perry, President of the New Zealand National Defence League was not speaking as an alarmist when he said in December :

The need for trained men is urgent and grave. The British Commonwealth of Nations may be .fighting for its existence within the next six months. We shall then find that what is needed in a war is soldiers, not recruits; and what is also needed is a civilian population prepared and trained to defend itself at home.

Ihe Prime Minister has said, in deploring the poor response to the appeal for territorial recruits, that “they were up against a lack of interest in the community in general.” The complaint has been made that the appeal was belated and half-hearted; that there was no inspiring leadership from those whose responsibility and duty it was to give it. Ultimately, however, the Government endeavoured to popularise recruiting by increasing the rate of pay and allowances and arranging for the teaching of trades. Even so, the response has been quite inadequate. No organisation has done more to stress the urgent necessity of comprehensive preparation for defence than the New 1 Zealand Defence League which has received practical support from the Returned Soldiers’ Association. The matter is of such vital moment, however, that it should receive the active support of every citizen in the community. Employers should give the fullest

encouragement to young men to enlist in the territorials and all should be prepared to render national service in a possible emergency. To-morrow night Nelson citizens will have an opportunity of assisting the Defence League in its campaign and it is earnestly to be hoped that local men and women alike will demonstrate that the Prime Minister s remark that “they were up against a lack of interest in the community in general” does not apply to Nelson to-day. Elsewhere in this issue appears a letter from a correspondent who raises some pertinent points demanding attention, one of which deals with the provision of arms and other necessary equipment. They are so vitally important that it is impossible to believe that they have been overlooked by the Government. Party politics do not enter into so grave an issue. There is, we regret to say, much justification for his assertion that, after

years of warning, we are “the E only weak and defenceless unit in the Empire.” And he asks, as r< many other people are asking: i? “What use is our much-vaunted P ‘standard of living,’ and ‘Social t( Security,’ and the millions diverted to these ends, when some at least of the millions should have q been applied to what is infinitely j. more important, namely, National • “ Security?” “Social Security” will s become merely an empty phrase if we do not possess National Ser curity. £