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Hokitika Guardian, 3 January 1920, Page 2

lx an address before the Victorian Chamber of Manufactures in Melbourne Mr H. S. Gullett, late official war correspondent, said that a matter which could not be too strongly emphasised was that there was an inseparable association between national defence and local manufactures. No country was safe from aggression which did not possess great and permanently established , manufacturing industries. “The nation’s manufacturers,” he said, “must from Jins ' time forward play as great a part in the defence of their country as the ypung men capable of carrying arms, -The greajb wiif was a test of the manufacturing resources on b/jth sides tp ap evpn greater extent than ij was a Jest fighting capacity of the rival armies in the trenches, No modern army can continue fighting unles§ it is supported by the teeming utput of great factories. If Australia is to defend herself in the future, it is indispensable th;it she shall he self-contain-ed in all the munitions and equipment necessary in war. Without ttys British navy vve aye not safe, Without the might of Britain behind ns our grand ideal of a ‘White Australia' u'nqjd Ije in imminent danger. We mouth such phrases as ‘nationhood’ and ‘local autonomy,’ W(‘ shout about independence, while in reality we know that if danger came and found us as \ve fire to.-dny opr dependence upon the mother country would lie absolute. Is this a dignified position? Is it sound? Putting aside the dignity, let us consider the soundness of it. Study England’s position before the w;ir and. to-day. To-day England is milking a gajlunj, effort to recover her old position. But slm' is sorejy handicapped by her new social and industrial conditions. She is burdened down by a colossal load of debt from which grenjt numbers of her population will probably endeavour to escape by emigration. Nobody doubts that England will make a wonderful recovery, but the most optimistic must question whether she can within the next two or three generations ever exercise in the world the relatively dominating position which she occupied in 1914. We cannot as a matter of decency, and we dare not as a matter of Commonwealth and Empire concern, any longer look upon England as lpady at any and every moment as she lias beyn ip the past to guarantee Australia’s safety against possible acts of aggression. We need not tear that England will desert us. Tf we are ever in danger she will give us of her best, but what "® must bear in mind is that her host in tlia fu,ture may he unable to save us from disaster unless we take the necessary steps to make the .Commonwealth self-contained in the matter of jts <lefenep.”