DEFENCE OF THE EMPIRE

Taranaki Daily News, 23 July 1931, Page 5

DEFENCE OF THE EMPIRE

PAYMENTS BY DOMINIONS. FAIR SHARE NOT ACCEPTED. A discussion on defence matters cropped up during a debate on the Imperial Conference report in the House of Representatives on Tuesday. The Hon. W. Downie Stewart (Reform —Dunedin West) said a point of particular interest arising from the conference was the defence problem. The position seemed to be that the Dominions were claiming a greater degree of independence, and at the same time Were passing the defence burden on to Britain. In the past the Dominions had claimed that Britain should shoulder a greater part of the burden in return for British preference in trade, but if the Dominions wanted an advantage through Empire preference, they would have to consider bearing a greater share of the defence burden.

“If the doctrine of equality means anything at all, it demands that additional payments be made to bring into harmony the sharing by the Dominions of the burden of Imperial defence,” declared Mr. F. Waite (Reform—Clutha), when advancing a claim that so far the overseas Dominions had not accepted their fair share of responsibility. <f Anyone who cares to go into the proportions that are carried several parts of the British Empire, he continued, “must realise that for us to talk about the Dominions being in no way subordinate one to another is nieie humbug. . “When the Primo Minister said we m New Zealand had no great desire to alter our status, I. believe he was correctly representing the New Zealand point or view, and I believe that is logical. What is the use of talking of equality? We do not shoulder a reasonable share of the burden of Imperial defence.” Mr. Waite quoted figures showing tha v in naval defence expenditure Great Britain paid £1 2s 6>Jd a head; Caiiada, Is fid; Australia, 5s Cd; New Zealand, 9s OJd; South Africa, 10s 7d. Approach, ing the question from a different angle, Mr. Waite said the proportion of expenditure of the different parts of the Empire upon naval defence in relation to the total import and export trade wasi-Groat Britain, 3.04 per cent ; Canada, 0.15 per cent.; Australia, I.OU per cent.; New Zealand, 0.77 per cent.; South Africa, 0.043 per cent. “Whichever way wo look at these figures,” Mr. Waite continued, “ye find that none of the overseas Dominions is taking its share of responsibility in the defence of the Empire.” A word of wisdom in relation to Ireland was added by Mr Waite. “If we could transplant Ireland into the Pacific?'where she would be as helpless ns is New Zealand without the protection of the British Empire,” he said, we would find Ireland even more enthusiastically patriotic than we arc.