BRITISH DEFENCE

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIV, Issue 20985, 14 March 1938, Page 11

BRITISH DEFENCE

MR CHAMBERLAIN'S WARNING By Telegraph —Pres? association WELLINGTON, March 12. Reference was made to-day by the Dominion president of the New Zealand Defence League (the Hon. W. Perry, M.L.C.), to a statement in the House of Commons on Mondf.y by the Rt. Hon. Neville Chamberlain, that th: £1,500,000,000 which was annor-ced two years ago as the sum to be spent on armaments over a period of three years would not now be sufficient. Mr Chamberlain laid down as the basis of British defence policy three objectives: (1) The defence of the United Kingdom; (2) The defence of the trade routes that feed it; (3) The maintair ance of naval bases and strategic points in various parts of the world. “It is this third point that immediately concerns New Zealand,” said Mr Perry, “because Mr Chamberlain stated that that objective was not as vital as the defence of Great Britain, because so long as Great Britain is defended at Home, even if she sustained losses overseas, she might have the opportunity to make it good afterwards. “This statement appears to visualise the possibility of the seizure of New Zealand by a foreign power in the event of war, and it is of the greatest importance that the people of New Zealand should be exhorted to appreciate the danger.” Mr Perry will address a meeting of women members of the Wellington Branch of the League on Tuesday, and will discuss the position of the overseas Dominions, particularly New Zealand, in view of the warning uttered recently by Mr Chamberlain: