DEFENCE OF NEW ZEALAND

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 30 June 1939, Page 9

DEFENCE OF NEW ZEALAND

I") Ibe Kditffi Sir, —I really cannot pass the Hon. R. Semple’s remarks in last night’s issue without comment. To a soldier and officer of over 20 years service and who has made a study of military tactics both in peace and war, these statements read childishly. He says “We can build forts and gun emplacements.’’ What for? We have no guns in the first place, and in tile second the day of forts is done. With mod. ern high power artillary, forts are useless. Even in the great war, forts were looked upon as a very desirable target. I have seen the results of a short bombardment on what was then considered the strongest forts in the world. If Mr Semple thinks that bulldozing earth into heaps is building a fort, he lias another think coming. He says “Wecould dig trenches as quick as one could walk.” I wonder if h. 5 realises that trenches are only dug when the war becomes static, in other words, when both sides have met and a decision cannot he arrived at. Cover is then sought and the men scratch head cover, this is enlarged under the cover of darkness, and finally i s linked up in a continuous trench line. This operation is carried out within rifle shot of the opposing force. Now, with these facts in view, how is Mr Semple going to bulldoze out his trenches? Perhaps he will ask fo? an armistice and give the enemy a demonstration. It looks as if the bulldozers have served their purpose and Mr Semple does not know what to do with them, so he must he trying to “sell” them to the defence authorities so that the charge can he made against defence and iu the public works. No, Mr Semple, it is not bulldozers and angle dozers that is required for the defence of our country, hut trained men with modern armaments. If a few of his machines were sold and the money spent in the purchase of a few up to date submarines and fast torpedo boats, I for one would feel more safe.

But after all, Mr Editor, we are harking up the wrong tree. Anyone who has really and intelligently studied the military ami naval situation realises that if an enemy landed on the shores of New Zealand it would he all over with us. It would mean that the British Navy had been defeated and if this happened New Zealand would S’*- An enemy would not bother to go into Mr Semple’s valleys and rivers, hut would simply capture our main towns and sit in them until wesubinitted, which would not he long, as our supplies would bj cut, and perhaps the repair shops at Temuka bombed. No Sir, our line of defence is where the British armies are fighting, and not the coasts of New Zealand. 11l these armies are defeated, we, and our country would become the spoils of the victor, and New Zealand taken over without the, firing of a shot, bulldozers includVVith these facts—and they are facts—in mind I will leave it to your readers ?s t-, what is the correct method for the defence of New Zealand. —I am etc., THINKING EX-OFFICER. Stoke, 28th June.