ADDRESS TO NATION

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 98, 28 April 1939, Page 7

ADDRESS TO NATION

AUSTRALIA’S PRIME MINISTER APPEAL FOR CO-OPERATION OF CITIZENS. SYDNEY, April 26. Australia’s new Prime Minister, Mr. R. G. Menzies, introduced himself to the citizens of the Commonwealth over a national network. In a short broadcast he made a fervent appeal for general co-operation in the development and defence of the nation. Present-day circumstances, he emphasised, demanded industrial, economic, and social organisation in the fullest measure. Financial resources must be prepared to pay more. State Governments would be expected to make necessary arrangements for air-raid precautions. He insisted there would be no profiteering by capitalists. The problem of defending the country was not one alone for young man-power—it concerned everyone. The Government, he added, had resolved not only to defend Australia against foreign aggression, but it would seek to raise the standards of life for the ordinary man and woman. Mr. Menzies concluded by saying that the Government intended to devote its energies in the direction of peace without being solely dependent on British sea power and declared that Australia’s main responsibility was in the Pacific in conjunction with New Zealand. Mr. Menzies said that no Australian troops would be compelled to go to a foreign battlefield, "but let no one imagine Australia can remain neutral or be treated as neutral in the event of war in which Britain is engaged. British countries must stand or fall together. This land must be so armed and prepared as to ensure that a potential enemy will hasitate to attack us. In all our consultations with Britain and the other Dominions we must act on the basis that the primary task in the Pacific is borne by New Zealand and ourselves.”