POWERFUL EMPIRE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 89, 16 April 1938, Page 11

POWERFUL EMPIRE

TO PRESERVE PEACE [ Per Pres* Association. ] OAMARU, April 14. In an address at the Scott AntarcticExpedition commemoration ceremony yesterday,' Vice-Admiral Harper stressed the necessity of a powerful Empire in order to have peace. Some people had said that the war generation died to make the world safe for future generations. That was an impossibility.

“Every generation must justify itself,” said the speaker. “It has also been said that we are a peace-loving nation, but I would rather we were a peace-interested nation. It is to our interest to preserve peace. It is the duty of everybody to train themselves to be a power for peace. To do that we must have discipline. The Empire must be secure to be prosperous and we must preserve our sea power to keep the seas safe for merchantmen both in peace and war. If that power is lost we would lose our security, lose our trade—lose everything.”

Without security there could only be defeat, said Vice-Admiral Harper. Defeat was not peace. It was nonsense to say the abolition of armaments would prevent war, just as it was as sensible to say the abolition of the police force would prevent crime. The Empire must be powerful to avert defeat, and bring security and consequent peace.

“It is the bounden duty of every one of us to work to that end,” he concluded.