MR ALLEN'S OFFER

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 4 February 1913, Page 5

MR ALLEN'S OFFER

EXPLAINED BY THE PREMIER. (By Telegraph■—l'rcss Association.) WELLINGTON, Last Night. Tho cable message from London regarding Hon James Allen's reference to-"an expeditionary force of 8000 men from New Zealand was referred to-day to tlio .Prime Minister, who was asked whether the Minister of Defence, in making this statement, had tho ''Sanction and concurrence of the Cabinet and Government. The Prme Minister explained that what Mr Allen had stated'was merely _ a hope that in the time of danger New • Zealand would 1 furnish a contingent or contingently, as was done on the occasion of the South African War, when about this number of volunteer troops Mas dispatched from New Zealand to the assistance of the Mother Ccuntry. The Defence Act did "'ot contemplate the sending of expeditionary forces from the Dominion to places outside, and smcli a measure would obviously have to bo sanctioned by Parliament. His reading cf the cable was that Mr Allen had simply said he hoped tlie Doininion would-, on a future occasion, if need be, furnish to the Mother Country aid similar to that provided in the Boer War.