DEFENCE AND PUBLIC OPINION

Southland Times, Issue 23736, 7 February 1939, Page 9

DEFENCE AND PUBLIC OPINION

To The Editor Sir,— Nowadays one seldom reads a daily paper without seeing some reference to the defence of the Empire and New Zealand. Your leading article on “Defence and Public Opinion” in Saturday’s issue was interesting and to’ the point. As a member of the public and one who has had experience in the army I would like to give my opinion. I will confine my remarks to what I consider counts most in the defence of any country, in spite of all modem mechanization, and that is, the man with the rifle. In the first place how many rifles has our Minister of Defence got to give out to the young men of New Zealand in the event of an emergency and how many of them would be worth carrying? In the last war many a lad was given a rifle with which it was impossible to

hit a 4ft target twice in succession and yet he was supposed to defend himself with it. My opinion is that the Government should have been laying in a liberal supply of modem rifles and ammunition. They are good keepers and might come in useful later. The rifles are little help if the persons behind them ( don’t know how to use them. My opinion is that the Government should do everything possible to assist rifle clubs. As it is, rifle clubs and their associations have been down on their knees many times trying to get more assistance from the department with little or no success;

An instance of that was given here in Invercargill a few months ago. Rifle clubs, both open range and miniature are a great asset to the country and I would like to take this opportunity of showing appreciation of the work done by citizens who do all they can for these clubs. Why cannot the Government do more? Perhaps it does not realize what these clubs can do to prepare young men for the defence of their country. My opinion is that the Government should supply the butts for the open range and the miniature range as well and hand them oyer along with the rifles and ammunition to those willing to run the clubs. No doubt they would see to the rest. The Government need not worry about the red tape, the signing up at the recruiting office and the oath of allegiance. The young men of New Zealand will deal with those things later should the occasion arise. The result would be. a general efficiency in marksmanship that would go a long way to help the defence of any country. The machine-gun is also important. How many of our young men have ever seen one? Could not the Defence' Department hand over one or two of the latest Brens to competent members of the territorial force in each district or province and send them round the different clubs on shooting days to let members see and try them ? What better way would there be for getting young fellows interested? There is no doubt in my opinion that if some thousands of the millions now being spent on roads and so on was spent in the way I suggest we would get all the public-spirited action needed and have a very efficient body of young men which could in a very few days be changed into a very efficient army that would be a tough proposition for any invader to face. The lead should come from the Government, but it seems more interested in other kinds of expenditure. It is to be hoped the Government wakes up before all the money has gone west.—Yours, etc., ONE OF THE PUBLIC. February 6, 1939.