NEEDS OF DEFENCE

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 84, 6 October 1938, Page 8

NEEDS OF DEFENCE

"Defence is not a matter for party politics," declared the Minister (Mr. F. Jones) at a luncheon given in Dunedin yesterday by the Territorial Association of Otago. It is only when the defence of a country has been neglected by the party in power that the question enters the arena of party politics. There is only one aspect of the defence of the Donfinion that is open to serious criticism and that is the land forces. These have been until recently distinctly undermanned and it is still

held by such authorities as a conference of ex-officers of the N.Z.E.F. that the strength of the Territorial Forces should be raised materially. The late crisis—though it cannot yet be said to have been settled completely—gave a natural fillip to recruiting, but Sic question may well be asked whether so vital a branch of the defence system should be left to the chance occurrence of war scares for the attainment of its full complement of man power. The call to service is .permanent-, and should be so recognised. In the meantime the first task is to build up the air arm to its requirements as the first line of defence, and in this direction the Ministry has made real progress, as far as circumstances will allow. Neither air defence nor naval defence can be improvised at a moment's notice; they require much material equipment, and a long training of personnel. The Minister's explanation of what had been achieved with the Air Force and what it was hoped to achieve was reassuring. With the tremendous demand for machines in Britain it is hardly to be expected that New Zealand could acquire large numbers of the latest aeroplanes, but for training purposes and use in emergency the machines that will become available should serve the purposes of the near future. A trained personnel is the more urgent necessity and the possibility of training 1000 pilots a year in New Zealand suggested by the Minister opens out a wide field of service. No future Government in the face of world movements can afford to neglect the needs of defence.