DEFENCE NEEDS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22489, 5 August 1936, Page 17

DEFENCE NEEDS

Sir, —The decision of the Auckland Returned Soldiers' Association asking the Government to immediately take steps to rectify the lack of defence forces in New Zealand will commend itself to everybody endowed with reasonable common sense. Incidentally, it has renewed my faith in that body, for it is plain that nowadays its members, or the great majority of them, have the interests of their country at heart. Mr. Tronson's views 011 the method of increasing the land or territorial forces are really the first constructive method to be offered. His plan, to recruit from the single unemployed and to divide their time between drilling and teaching them a trade or vocation, has everything to commend it, and in this direction he has given the Government a lead, just as much as the Returned Soldiers' Association has shown them by the motion passed recently. There is no doubt that our defences are in a parlous state, and one is inclined to the view that Mr. Savage is in for a hot time when the Imperial Conference gets on to the question of defence. I may be mistaken, but it has always been my impression that Labour as a party is opposed to militarism in every shape or form, and so some pronouncement or practical steps should be taken now to restore the confidence of the people in the defence of their own country. Mr. Tronson has shown the way in which the present Government can assist the young unemployed and at the same time make them worthy of their citizenship. The number of young men enrolled in the territorials is, as he says, a disgrace, but what can one expect if business houses and public bodies will not grant leave to members of their staffs from time to time in order to attend camps. Is it not a fact, sir, that one public, body, dealing direct with the people, allows time for this, but compels the employee to deduct such leave from his annual holiday? Well might one ask, where stands New Zealand? Returned Soldier.