THE DEFENCE LEAGUE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 14 April 1939, Page 9

THE DEFENCE LEAGUE

ITo The Editor) Sir, —Once again we must thank Mr Lorimer for his courteous reply to an honest inquiry for information. An important point is made clear* in his letter. The Defence League considers that a strong attempt to influence the Government to do things which have never been done before in peace time in New Zealand, and which are decidedly unI British, and probably undemocratic '(certainly undemocratic unless additional safeguards are develodped > j to wit, to introduced compulsory | service. better known as con- j scription. is not “interference with ' the running of the military forces ■ of the nation.” It is interesting to i know this, and perhaps it would be 1 ! mor e interesting still to know what the leaders of the Defence League would consider to be “interference with the : running of the military forces of the 1 nation.” We can only thank Mr Lori- j mer for his generous permission to hold our own opinion on the matter. The second conclusion that appears to arise from Mr Lorimer s letter is that the League is not interested officially, which is very much the same thing as saying that the framers of the League’s platform are not interested in anything but the enlistment of cannon fodder for their own defence. The League does not care whether I wars are used to make profits. It does not care if, through the cutting of communications, its conscripted men have no ammunition. The League is not concerned with the fair treatment of the rank and file, perhaps because so many of its leaders are not members of the rank and file, or perhaps because they just have not thought of it, or perhaps because they do not want to think of it. Newspapers, Government-inspired c-r otherwise, may print all the lies in Christendom, but the Defence League will not be interested so long as conscription is in force. Mr Lorimer’s answers have made it very apparent that the League is not the place to look for! leadership in anything but conscription and the keying up of the old traditions—the old unit names and numbers in which the old-school-lie brigade have such a pathetic faith. If the New Zealand Defence League were really as interested in Defence as it says it is it might have been thought that all questions relating to Defence would | come within its orbit. Mr Lorimer has made it quite plain that this is not so. If he and we together have appeared fo labour the point no doubt the public will realise that it is because both he I and we regard it as important. Lastly it appears that the League thinks that the fact of conscription would do more to prevent a Japanese raid than the presence of either an effective naval force or a strong air force. Yet it must be apparent to the. League that Japan will send no Expo- 1 ditionary force unless we are cut off! from the rest of the Empire, and that what we most have to fear is a hit-and-run raid such as might have been carried out by the Emden in the last war, and against that an army of men armed with rifles and machine guns would be helpless. Is it not true that conscription alone is not enough? No one doubts that the defence of New Zealand is a matter of the first importance but there does not appear to be much reason to suppose that the limited and unimaginative 'and stale ideas of the New Zealand Defence League are likely to do any more than annoy the conscripts with stupidities and to provide the clergy, for want of a better opportunity, with a chance to bore their unbelieving but patient 1 flocks of military lambs in a way they j could never do with civilians.—l am, etc., THE SOCIETY FOR INVESTIGATION OF THE DEFENCE LEAGUE.; Nelson, 12th April.