SOLDIER’S WARNING

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18256, 27 November 1933, Page 9

SOLDIER’S WARNING

PROTECTION OF EMPIRE WAY TO PREVENT WAR . The need for Great Britain providing adequate protection for herself and her possessions was mentioned by Lieut.General Sir William Raiue Marshall, in the course of an address delivered to members of the New Zealand Club at Wellington. While nobody, aim especially a soldier who had seen war, wanted war, he said, the only way to prevent war was to be prepared for war.

All wars were due to economic causes, and whatever one heard about the religious wars, of the old days, the fact was that they did not start over religious grounds, Sir W illiam said. They owed their cause fundamentally to economic grounds, and the religious part of tile business was used afterward for propaganda. When one looked around at the. present day, the desire for expansion on the part of certain nations appeared to be very natural People were increasing in numbers, and had to go somewhere. The question was, where were they going to? The British Commonwealth of Nations was far-flung, and New Zealanders were living in one of the farthest flung lands. He did not know whether New Zealand and its Government were thinking about the situation in the Pacific, or whether the Government was taking steps to be prepared for eventualities in the Pacific. CRY FOR DISARMAMENT The great cry in Britain seemed to be for a reduction of armaments, and for a lowering of the costs of building battleships. He personally could never see how battleships cost the country anything. W’as it not better to build battleships, giving employment to thousands in the dockyards and allied industries, instead of discharging the men and putting them, on the dole? Every part of a battleship was produced in Great Britain, and it seemed to him just as cheap to build naval vessels as to keep men on the dole. He supposed he should not enter into political questions at all, but, speaking as a soldier, he did think that armaments had been so cut down until Great Britain and her Empire generally were in a dangerous position. When a,man owned a house property, the first thing he would do, if he were a sensible man, would be. to insure it, not only against fire but also against burglary,, and he would also put a fence around it to keep marauders out. But Governments did not seem to do this. They had very valuable possessions and said: “They are ours; why should anyone else want to take them?” It did not seem to be reasonable to him. EFFECT OF “FOURTEEN POINTS” He thought that much of the present attitude in the world was due to President Wilson’s “Fourteen Points. Ihe present cry of self-determination and the cry for the rights of the smaller nations had done very much to disturb the peace of the world. Every nation was taking the view that it had to be selfcontained and was not going to import anything, putting this policy in. operation by the erection of high tariff wallsMuch of this was due to the “Fourteen Points,’’ with the result that liitcinational trade was almost destroyed. There was no doubt in his mind that the British Commonwealth of Nations could only he held together by a very closely-knit economic union between the Mother Country and the Dominions, and the more sympathy there was, the closer the tie would be. Sentiment naturally came into the question, and he though that New Zealand was definitely proEmpire, pro-British. He did think that a valuable country, an enormous asset like New Zealand, should be prepared for eventualities in the case of war.