WAR AND RUMOURS OF WARS

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22520, 30 September 1938, Page 9

WAR AND RUMOURS OF WARS

TO TM EDITOft OT THB TM%tt*. Sir,—Just as the members of the Government are" resorting to abuse of the National Party and trying to cover up the main issue before the electors, so your correspondent, H. J. Egan, is also endeavouring to draw a herring across the track. I am sure that the electors are not concerned with what happened to the territorial army during the world-wide depression. During that period there was little prospect of war, but now, while the members of the Government are supplying amusement to the people, by their comic-mud-slinging tactics, at their political meetings, the matter of defence is being neglected. What the electors wish to know is. what is the Government doing in the matter of defence of New Zealand during the present moment of danger?

Picture to yourself an enemy aero-plane-carrying man o' war, 50 miles off our coast, sending aeroplanes loaded

with gas shells and dropping them on Christchurch. What would be the attitude of the present Government in such a crisis?

We all know what some of the members of the present Government Party did during the Great War, but let the past bury the past: what we are concerned about is, is the Government ready now? What will the Government do on October 1 if war is declared? Is it now ready to protect the people against an enemy gas attack? It seems to me that the members of the Government are more concerned in their efforts to hold their jobs than in the defence of New Zealand. What we need is a definite assurance of protection in the event of war. That is the national and social security which the people ■want. —Yours, etc.. R. T. WILLAN. September 28, 1938. [This correspondence is now closed.— Ed., "The Press."!