APPEAL TO EX-SOLDIERS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19694, 28 July 1938, Page 14

APPEAL TO EX-SOLDIERS

, BALANCED CRITICISM DOMINION DEFENCE (for Truss Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. A suggestion that delegates to the New Zealand Returned Soldiers' Association conference should not pass remits dealing with defence without fully considering the Government's attitude on defence, was made by the Minister of Defence, the Hon. F. Jones, when speaking at the opening of the conference yesterday. Mr. Jones said he noticed there were remits on the order paper dealing with defence, and he regretted he had not time to discuss them. However, he commended to the notice of the conference an interview given to the press by the Air Marshal, Sir Edward Ellington, whose opinion in outlining the scale of attack to which New Zealand would be subjected was most valuable. Mr. Jones said that the conference should then consider the statement he made recently at Dargaville and see what the Government was doing to meet a scale of attack as set out by Sir Edward Ellington. The vxovernment did not mind criticism, and no body was fitted to criticise more than those who had served in the late war, but he wanted them to weigh up everything before passing remits.