GREATEST PEACE HOPE

Wairarapa Daily Times, 4 September 1936, Page 3

GREATEST PEACE HOPE

STRONG BRITISH EMPIRE.

PLUS AMERICAN FRIENDSHIP.

TORONTO, Thursday,

“Australia is spending more money on defence and adding to' her naval, military and aerial equipment,” said the Premier of New South Wales, Mr B. S. B. Stevens, who is en route for home from England. “W’e must have a definite defence policy. Wo feel we must be prepared to defend ourselves and make our resources a unit in a general scheme of Empire defence.” Responding to a civic welcome later, Mr Stevens said: “Empire strength plus the friendship of the people of the United States constitutes the world’s greatest peace hope. The world wants it —even those who might be regarded as hostile to Britain —because it means peace in the world. I have found it in Europe and in the United States.

“Australia desires to function for peace, but if another call similar to that of 1914 came, her part in Empire defence would be displayed with the same strength,” Mr Stevens told a cheering crowd at a gathering under the auspices of the directors of ’ the Canadian National Exhibition. The world would not be able to solve problems by bilateral trade agreements and the old way in which they exchanged goods and paid for them on exchange through London or New York would be found best. “But we have got to travel a long way before we get to it,” he said. Mr Stevens added that he had not intended to return via North America but was asked to do so by United States firms in order to talk .over political conditions.