Attack From the Air

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 116, 6 August 1927, Page 9

Attack From the Air

NEW ZEALAND’S PERIL COMMAND OF THE SEAS (THE SUN'S Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Friday. The necessity for retaining command of the sea in case New Zealand is some day threatened by attack from the air was stressed by the Minister of Defence, the Hon. F. J. Rolleston, during the Budget debate in the House of Representatives this evening, when Mr. H. E. Holland, Leader of the Opposition, criticised the increased amount of money spent on defence in comparison with expenditure on education. Mr. Holland pointed out that since 1924 naval and military expenditure had increased by 62 per cent., while the increase in expenditure on education was only 14 per cent. The Minister of Education was saying that he could not find money for necessary school buildings, while his colleagues were telling the country that the:/ were going in heavily for naval and military expenditure. Mr. Rolleston said that the increase of expenditure by the Defence Department over the years quoted by Mr. Holland had been due almost entirely to the increased naval vote on account of extra expenditure caused by the Government’s maintenance of an additional cruiser. Military expenditure had been fairly constant. For the coming year the naval estimate was £493,326 and the military estimate £464,995, a total of £958,321, which was s.lightly less than the vote for last year, and a little lilore than that for the preceding year. Mr. Holland: In 1926 there was an increase of about £85,000 in militaryexpenditure. Mr. Rolleston explained that there was a number of war expenses still charged to the department which had to be cleared up. It accounted also for a little expenditure in 1926-27. The total defence estimate for this year was £ 62,000 less than the total for 1926-27. Mr. Holland: You must be forgetting the Singapore contribution. Mr. Rolleston: I am not forgetting that. If we add £125,000 for Singapore the total is £1,083,321, which is not a great increase. Even now, including the Singapore contribution, the total expenditure this year will be only £ 63,000 over the amount expended last year. Mr. Holland had drawn a comparison between defence and education figures, but it was not a fair way to look at it, continued Mr. Rolleston. The question was whether Mr. Holland considered expenditure on defence fair. It would be interesting to know if Mr. Holland would reduce; defence* expenditure if he were in power. Mr. Holland: We will discuss that when we get to the naval estimates. Mr. Rolleston recalled that Mr. Holland had said at Tirnaru, that the next war would be fought in the air and from the laboratory. Mr. P. Fraser: If people are mad enough to have another war. Mr. Rolleston: How would we prepare for the possibility of war in the air? Obviously, the only way would be by strengthening the navy. As far as New Zealand is concerned, an ail* attack could come only by sea, and as long as we have command of the sea there will be no fear of such an attack. The point I want to make is that naval expenditure must be provided for. There seems to be no means of avoiding it if we are to protect ourselves from air attack. We must have control of the sea.