WHERE TO FIGHT.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3508, 10 June 1920, Page 6

WHERE TO FIGHT.

GENERAL BIRDWOODHS ADVICE. THE BASIS’ OF DEFENCE. Geneml Sir William Binlweodt told the members of the ‘New Zealand Club on Monday that he had climbed to the topiof the Tinakori hills with the object of getting a bird ’s-eye View of Wellington, but had found that a screen of smoke obscured the city. The smoke at any rate was evidence that the city was active in an. industrial "sense, and the sight had :1 Inor_al for -men who had seen the devastation wrought in Europe by the German in—4f -....1n...n

vaders. “My army happened to have the good fortune to relieve Lille,” continued General Birdwood. “When We got ther Lille was :1 dead city. The Germans had removed practiealy all’ the machinery from the manufacturting centres, and the industries of ‘Lille were stilled. That was not legitimate wzirfare. The Germans did it deliberately, because they wanted to have undisputed commercial superiority after securing the military domination that they were aiming at. The citizens of llillé- were good enough to oifer me the freedom of the eity_.{ and I went over there a year later to receive the honour. Lille was still .3, city of the dead. Nothing was going on.

“I asked the people why they had not resumbed their industrial activity, and they. replied that they had been unable to get machinery. They had placed their orders in England, but these orders could not be filled quick- . ly. Many other towns in the War area were _in the same pasition. How extraordinarily fortunate are towns like Wellington, that have never had an enemy at their 'gates. “Whatever happens, make sure that. if fighting takes place in the future lit takes place in somebody else’s backyard, and not in your 0/wn_ I said the other day that I realised the‘ limitations that ~were placed upon; the defensive pfe'parutions of a people l numbering only one million. You can )not go in for enormous expenditure, ‘even for defence. But you can have a definite policy to work to. Make up your minds what you are going to do and let your people know how far that falls short. of perfection, as of necessity it must do. Then they will know what to expect in time of! necessity. Never allow p-ourselves to be put in the position of enduring, what Lille endured.” General Birdwood added that New Zealand’s great need seemed to him_ to be aditional population. That need seemed to be realised by the people he had met. He had been surprised and pleased to see that according to the official figures the birth—rate of the Dominion llzld been well maintained‘ during most of the years of the war. in spite of the mobilisation of a large, proportion of the men. The ‘\\'omen'

evidently had been doing their duty, and the “Diggers” had done their duty at the same time by bl'ingin_:_,>' back some 3000 brides from the Old Country. He had noticed in Australia that despite the drought the best crop of :111—the children.-—w:ls doing wonderfully well. and he did not doubt that as he travelled through New Zealand he would find lusty youngsters of the same stamp. Children were the most valuable ramp that any :':oun.tl'y could mise.-, but he hoped that New Zealzn-Id was not going to depend upon that crop for building up the population. The Dominion soldiers, during the war. had invited many of the men of British regiments to come to New Zeutand. They had told the English “'l‘onnni<~s” to onligr:lte to a eoun~ try that hm! abundant .x'un.<hine and that was pl'ep:n'ed to I‘ew:n'd the man who assi.~‘ft'd in the tasks of natural developnlmit. \\"n«.*n all the New Zenhnnd .~‘o}-".i*l'.~‘ had been settled ngnin in «.*i‘.‘i7. lit’? the Don1h1i()1) (‘)l];'_{‘]lt. to \\'el:'o:ne li:«..‘l>nnd.< of the Bl‘it’iS}l "soldiers.