DEFENCE OF NEW ZEALAND

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 17 April 1939, Page 4

DEFENCE OF NEW ZEALAND

UNPREPAREDNESS (To The Editor] Sir.—l have shown that an enemy could land demolition forces under cover of gunfire and so set fire lo towns, and destroy shipping, wharves, gasworks, freezing works, oil tanks, and so forth. Have the public realised that this is only one of the possibilities? Have they lealised that it might not be necessary to undertake the landing of troops. Have they realised the very real danger from incendiary bombing? A few details of the modern incendiary bomb may not be out of place. It is, in size, about that of a medium sized pear; it weighs about 21bs; it ignites on percussion and when once aHght neither water nor the patent fireextinguishers will put it out. The heat it radiates is so intense that no one can approach within 10 feet of it unless wearing special asbestos clothing. In fact, the only way of dealing with it when alight is to scoop it up on a very long-handled shovel, heave it into some open place and let it expire on its own. Its “life” is about 15 minutes.

Let us imagine therefore what could happen to Nelson or any other similar city. Let us imagine one enemy aeroplane carrying, say. only 100 bombs »total weight 2001bs). It arrives over the city and cruises round dropping one of these little “pears" every second nr so. Within a very few minutes we have at least two or three score fires raging simultaneously in the city. What fire brigade, however good, can hope to cope with this?

In this picture I have only dealt with one aeroplane carrying 100 bombs, but it should not be forgotten that the modern bombing plane can carry at least 1000 of such bombs over long distances. Is it therefore so impossible for a raider to destroy utterly several cities in a very short time, provided of course that it must have air supremacy, and also have its base (i.e., aeroplane carrier) close at hand.

Let us imagine one greater horror, the preliminary dropping of lachrymatory bombs. This gas causes such intense irritation to the eyes of the victim that he is literally blinded with tears, and. being unable to see at all. can of course do nothing. Imagine a proportion of the population so blinded. with fires raging all round, and one realises one phase of the horrors of modern warfare.

Some people may condemn all this as the fantastic imagining of a disordered and obsessed brain, but it should not be foi gotten that it has happened in China and in Spain. Great Britain with her brick, stone, and concrete buildings has spent and is spending millions of pounds in augmenting the fire-fighting services, training and equipping hundreds of auxiliary firebrigades; not only in cities, but in rural districts as well. How much more necessary this should be in a country whose main structures are of wood.

What is the answer to all this? The fighting forces should be enormously increased and the civilians should be trained to combat gas and fire dangers. Wc should follow Britain in this matter. Owing to our (largely unavoidable) weakness in the air our danger is greater than hers. Against such dangers as these we have no organisation whatever and it cannot be too often repeated that this particular danger ; s one that if it arises at all may well arise within a week of the outbreak of war.

Many people derive a degree of consolation from the assurances by the

Government that all necessary precautions have been taken. They are easily reassured! Our navy is so small and so scattered as to be utterly and entirely useless in a sudden emergency. What are 3000 men scattered from Auckland to the Bluff? Our air force is too small to keep the air in the face of one aircraft carrier with 50 or 60 ‘fighters.” Our navy. even if joined with the Australian, dare not attack an enemy squadron convoyed by one battleship. The Minister of Public Works pats himself on the back because he has made strategic roads. What use in the wide world are such roads without troops? They become an added danger. If at the end of next week an enemy made a landing at Timaru or at Napier or at Waiwera (25 miles up the coast from Auckland) how many battalions of effective infantry and how many batteries of artillery could meet them within, say, 24 hours? Mysterious references to the adequate steps that have been taken may deceive a few but everyone who has the slightest knowledge of war knows that the steps taken so far are very nearly useless because we have almost no trained infantry and field artillery—and that is fact, not conjecture.—l am. etc.. “DEFENCE." Nelson. 15th April.