DEFENCE NEEDS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23517, 4 June 1938, Page 14

DEFENCE NEEDS

The Prime Minister saw fit this week to interpret certain comments upon our deficiencies in defence, which were offered by the New Zealand Defence League, as implying a criticism or condemnation of his Government, No fair-minded man, who has given thought to the obligation resting upon all nations in present circumstances to prepare for the contingency of a national emergency, could imagine that the league’s spokesmen presented views that were politically biased. The example which Great Britain has presented to the nations of the British Commonwealth in the strengthening of the defensive organisation, is not to be disregarded. The Minister of Defence, Mr Jones, recognises that, and states that the measures which are being taken in New Zealand have the approval of the British authorities. That is the most important statement which emerged from the discussion on Thursday. It is desirable that the people of New Zealand should, in turn, recognise the good faith of the Government in its plans for improving the Dominion’s defence organisation. In some respects much has already been achieved, and in the air arm, especially, New Zealand is in process of becoming better fitted for training and, if need be, for action, than at any previous time. But the problem of obtaining sufficient recruits to the territorial forces remains. • The deputation from the Defence League urged that if a sufficient number of volunteers cannot be obtained a scheme of national service should be put into operation. This proposal appears to have been construed by the Prime Minister as a demand for the introduction of conscription, and was met with a somewhat platitudinous reference to the cost of the last war in life and money, and to his repugnance to the sordid trafficking of war in “ human flesh and blood.” It should scarcely be necessary to assure Mr Savage that to the people of New Zealand the tragic toll of war is no less repugnant than it is to him. But that cannot alter the fact that in the present unsettled state of the world New Zealand must be ready to meet any threat of aggression which may occur. Nor does it require the assumption that if compulsory military training were reintroduced in the Dominion, the trainees would immediately qualify for service overseas. The best assurance of freedom from molestation by foreign Powers that any country can obtain is afforded by its being in . a position to defend itself, and a territorial force adequately instructed is a necessity of this country’s defensive organisation. In making the terms of volunteer service more attractive, and especially in introducing a new and more becoming type of uniform, the Government has gone some way towards encouraging enlistment. Whether the inducements now offered will be sufficient to bring the territorial forces up to the required strength, which is essentially a minimum strength, is a question that has yet to be answered. But there is every reason, which receives emphasis in the world cablegrams daily, for taking a far-sighted and realistic view of the defence requirements of the Dominion, and the Government should be ready to welcome any assistance which is offered it in this matter, not to stigmatise every suggestion from a non-partisan source as politicallyinspired* 1

ELECTION PREMONITIONS Mr Semple’s prediction that th« general election campaign is going to be a “severe and dirty fight” is accompanied by a good deal of tha picturesque verbal embroidery in which he seems to be the acknowledged Ministerial specialist. It is' more than suggested that the Government and its supporters will,have to face every kind of vilification and despicable trickery that “sidetracking slander-mongers,” “character assassins,” “ curs,” and “ reptiles in human form” can conceive for their discredit. Why this should be Mr Semple’s anticipation, upon what grounds he rests his morbid prognostication, he has not thought fit to explain. But it is hardly a mere coincidence that recently at Christchurch two of his colleagues regaled their supporters with’ premonitions of a similar kind. According to Mr Armstrong the coming election fight is to be “vicious and wicked.” Mr Semple may be considered to have sufficiently indicated the quarter from which the manifestations of vice and wickedness are to emanate. It would be very interesting, however, to know why members of the Ministry should be seeking to create impressions of this kind. Is it in order that the rank and file of Labour, being r forewarned, shall <be forearmed? It must be a natural expectation that the election fight will be a keen one, but the enlargement of this community’s election experience in an unedifying direction is a gratuitous suggestion that comes badly in the utterances of Ministers. In openly encouraging the thought that what they call a “ dirty ” contest is impending they should be able to realise that they are certainly making no contribution to tha avoidance of the undesirable elements of which they predict the intrusion. Nor is the use of such terms as Mr Semple employs in reference to the subject likely to improve the prospects for the observance of election proprieties. That kind of talk on the part of Ministers is indeed to be strongly deprecated as calculated to stir up among their followers just the kind of spirit that would be expressed in regrettable manifestations. Ministerial suggestion does not fall short of the implication that the ■ powers of good and evil—Labour of course representing the former — are ranged against one another in the political arena. If Mr Semple and his colleagues wished to stimulate the fighting spirit of their supporters and to encourage them to view the election campaign from an angle conducive to the intrusion of unnecessary heat and vehemence, the point of their predictions might be sufficiently apparent.