EDGECUMBE POLITICAL ADDRESS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 127, Issue 127, 9 July 1941, Page 4

EDGECUMBE POLITICAL ADDRESS

Sir, —Since recently addressing a meeting of National. Party supporters at Edgecumbe I have been in Wellington and T'aranaki, and have no* yet seen the. report of that address which appeared in "The Beacon.'* But I have seen a copy of the "Standard"—the official organ of Labour reprints what 1 it claims; are excerpts from the Beacon, and basesjtjiereon a two-column attack upon misalleging that my Edgecumbe speech was a "crue? slander" upon New Zealand soldier# overseas. If your representative consults the notes he made in reporting my speech, I am sure he will find that I said nothing that could be inter-* preted, directly, or indirectly, as a reflection upon, our gall ant, men. overseas,. On the contrary he will find what I did say was : "There is not a man or woman in this country who has not thrilled with pride at the noble achievements of our New Zealand soldiers in Greece and Crete. By their gallant deeds! they have written new pages in history which will remain for ever imperishable.'* My attack was not upon our sol-* diers, but upon the Government of the ( day, which blind to all the signs which warned us of the inevitability of war, refused to introduce a system of universal training—refused even to- provide rifle ranges—■ whereby we might havei trained our youth to the use of arms'. And my recital of the story of the Veturneil soldier, who, having fought in botli wars, declared that whilei the men of this war were even better in physique and morale than the men of the last war, they dkl not measure up to the men of 1914-18 as rifle shots was used (as your reporter will agree) to support that charge. ' It goes without saying that the men of 1914-18, profiting by # the system of compulsory, military training, which, prevailed before the last war, would have a more proficient knowledge of the use of thei rifle than the men who went to this war. Anyone with a knowledge of the service rifle knows; it takes years to make a marksman. Thei official organ of the Government seeks to deflect my criticism of the Government to, one upon the men overseas. Every member of my audience at Edgecumbe will know that that there is not an iota of justification for this foul charge. Yours etc., F. W. DOIDGE.