DEFENCE PREPARATIONS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 20, 15 May 1914, Page 7

DEFENCE PREPARATIONS.

INTERESTING SPEECH BY SIR lAN || HAMILTON. i | [Peb Press Association.] ||| A vie kland. May 13. fi One’’ of the most important and inQ teresting speeches made by Sir Jan H Hamilton during the course of his Aus- || tralasian tour was that which he de- || iivered at tlie civic reception at the E*/Xo\vu Hall, Auckland, to-day, when roll ierring to the imperative need for H adequate defence measures in New » Zealand. gl General Hamilton commenced by H saying that in New Zealand’s biggest e| city he might make an answer to the jgj query which had directly and indirectly been submitted to him throughout Ids j tour, from south to north. That ques- ; tion Jiad been. “Why, when we are a! expecting the millennium, do we find ejjj practical and prosperous countries like U Australia and New Zealand earnestly engaged in furbishing up their armour SI of defence a He’would like to try ami answer that H question, not in the obvious way, but ® .rather in the abstract. It might even a be that those whom he was addresslug would regard his statement as S 3 original. | The first reason he would give, then, M was because the shrinkage of dis- | tance, the advent of electricity, M steam,sidps, aeroplanes and high exS plosives—so high that a shot from a U ] 1-inch gun could kill a man 20 miles | away—had brought most dangers nearI or - I Next, there was the obvious reason | that iu the Pacific great nations had either risen dining the last«>100 years or else the old nations were showing marvellous energy. Even as volcanoes, long quiescent, broke again into activity, so it was with some of the old : natiois of the Pacific, i The third obviins reason, was that the Pacific, despite its charming name, was, if anything, more stormy than some less distinguished parts of the globe. While they would all deplore such a stringency, it was conceivable that in the future, apart frpm storms i of nature, there would be greater and more terrible convul ions than in the past. That was to say, the Pacific was a meeting ground, not of nations, but of continents, and here it might be decided whether Asiatics or Europeans were going to guide the destinies of this planet. These were' more or less dhvious rea- ; sons, but there were others which he believed id he* real hud -trul?/ although | they were more or less under the sur- ' face. In the 'Malay, States, for in- ! stance, they would see a 1 fine people ‘| going under!’ before the irtflux .of lowclass materialist coolies' brought in to j j work for lew 1 bulges. China,> a country j over which he travelled two years ago j ! in the course of his inspection, showed j j signs of breaking up. The old moral ; restraints had gone. While there he j saw u nmdernised/Chinammn';scratching with a nail his name upon the wall of the “Temple-of Heaven,” a temple until recently' -so sacred that the EmI peror alone-. might approach it, and that only once, in a year. This was an illustration to show the change out of which was .evolving chaos, .and weltering confusion, such as existed at the time of the Encnch revolution, from which Napoleon arose. < Lastly, there were signs of danger, in our. own Empire, to the white race from the existence of this materialistic factor. In Ladysmith, when he first knew that) town, the main street was a street of prosperous business places, run by European shopkeepers. What a change had been wrought when he 'verity there two years ago! He had taken Sir George White’s place as I President of the Ladysmith organisation, and had kept constantly and closely in touch with the place. Whore the European shopkeeper had prosper- | ed, the monopoly of business was now held by bunyahs and coolies, who existed on a couple of meals of rice per day. They had no constructive or , progressive talent, but they could handle coin of thp realm with extreme ’ nicety. This, then, was the point of his story. This was why, instinctively, in a time of progress and prosperity, Australia and New Zealand did not lose 'sight of the necessity for preparations for defence. If people with high ideals - and high standards were forced to live cheek by jowl with people of low standards and low ideals, they must either become slave-drivers or sink to the level of those by whom they were surrounded, in which case they would he beaten. Of course, added the General, New Zealand was a long way off, but i Australia was very close to the.danger zone, and when ho looked at the map it seemed to him that New Zealand ocenpied the position of a little sister, small by comparison in size, but no . less eager. If danger threatened Australia, ho had not the slightest doubt j that New Zealand would he ready and willing to lend a hand to her sister in the Antipodes. (Loud and prolonged! applause).