DEFENCE NEEDS.

Taranaki Daily News, 22 May 1920, Page 5

DEFENCE NEEDS.

CANNOT BE NEGLECTED. MR. MASSEY ON WAR PROSPECTS.

We cannot allow this eountrv to go without defenqe," said the Prime Minister at the annual dinner of the Dental Association. "Defence expenditure is one of the calls tha.t we have got to face. Some people say that we should close down on defence expenditure, and trust to the League of Nations. They say that there is not going to be another war for thirty or forty years. A year or eighteen months ago I thought that we might be able to depend upon the League of Nations. I think it would be a splendid thing if the nations could join together to put an end to war. But I don't lite the look of things to-day. We see to-day two of the most powerful nations in the world, one a member of the League and the other outside the League, building the biggest and most powerful warships the world has ever seen. They are not building these shipa for holiday purposes. I don't want to suggest what those ships are being built for. I don't think they are being built to turn against the ships of our Empire. I hope not and believe not. But they are being built. ''Yon read in the cablegrams the other day that the great Krupp works in Germany are employing an even larger number of men now than they employed before the war. What are they doing it for? There again I must appeal to your imagination. Much as we all dislike war—and nobody on earth hates war more than I do myself—we must face the fact that war has not come to an end, and that if our Empire is to continue, and if we are to retain the freedom we enjoy, we must be prepared to defend ourselves."

Mr. Massey expressed pleasure at the impending arrival in New Zealand as Governor-General of Lord Jellicoe. There was no greater authority on defence, and especially naval defence, than Lord Jellicoe. ''l am n<;i.here to suggest extravagant expenditure for defence purposes," added the Prime Minister. "I do not want to spend a copper more than we need spend, or to interfere with industrial operations any more than we can help. But Ido want to impress upon the people of this country that we must not neglect our duty of doing our share in naval and military defence. I attach a great deal of importance to naval defence, and of course the two branches must go together. "It quite possible that the Pacific will be fiie storm centre in the next war. In 1914 we found ourselves practically undefended, and I shall never forget the nights we put out the lights along the coast' and never knew what news would come of our coastal, intercolonial, and overseas ships. We dori't want to get into that position again. I think that the chances are against another war taking place in the lifetime of the present generation. But that is no reason why we should leave oureelvel undefended and unprotected. It is our first duty to be prepared to protect ourselves, and I hope that New Zealand will continue to give a lead to the other Dominions in defence matters and to do its share in the defence of the great Empire to which we belong and of which the gallant lad who was here the other day will some day he King." |