NEW ZEALAND DEFENCES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22084, 14 October 1933, Page 10

NEW ZEALAND DEFENCES

The statement respecting the defences of the Dominion which was made by the 'Prime Minister yesterday will be received with approval, notwithstanding the increased expenditure that is foreshadowed by it. While New Zealand is among the countries that are most sympathetically disposed towards the disarmament proposals upon which the hopes of the greater part of the world at present' hang, it has become impossible to ignore either the implications of the resistance in some quarters to the ideals of Geneva, or the necessity that the British dominions in the Pacific area should not remain very imperfectly guarded. The realisation in Australia of the desirability of increasing the defensive armaments of the Commonwealth has recently been indicated in the announcement of a considerable programme of naval and Air Force additions, the mechanisation of the army, the manufacture of a greater proportion of munitions within the Commonwealth, and the strengthens ing of the coastal fortifications. The suggestion that the two southernmost dominions were preparing to restore the close defence liaison of pre-war days is confirmed by the Prime Minister, and it is clear that his Majesty’s Government in Great Britain has been consulted and given approval to the plans that are now announced. The immediate objective of the Government of the Dominion is to make progressive additions to the Air Force which had been allowed to decline in effectiveness until New Zealand possesses only two aircraft of military value. The conclusions drawn by the London press from the manoeuvres held at the Firth of Forth last month, in which the Navy and Air Force were engaged, support the wisdom of the decision of the Government to concentrate upon the strengthening of the aerial arm of defence. While the defensive operations of Air Force machines at the recent manoeuvres in Scotland were conducted in extremely favourable circumstances, it is apparent that the value of aircraft in replying to a coastal attack was very fully demonstrated. Eight of the machines which the Government proposes to procure will be torpedo carriers, which are now regarded as providing, in conjunction with naval craft, a first line of defence in coastal areas, the main concern in any system of defence in New Zealand. ( The Prime Minister gives an assurance, also, that the replacement of the present cruisers by more modern vessels will be made according to plan, while coastal defences will be strengthened and anti-aircraft defences will be established. The necessity for the decision of the Government may be regretted, on more than one ground, but Mr Forbes’s statement comes as a reminder that the Dominion is at present extremely vulnerable to any possible form of attack, and the activities of the Powers in seeing to their defences leave little doubt as to the danger of disregarding the portents of the day.