THE BASIS OF DEFENCE.

Taranaki Daily News, 19 June 1920, Page 10

THE BASIS OF DEFENCE.

NEED FOR POPULATION' GENERAL BIRDWOOD'S ADVICE. "Whatever -happens, make sure that if fighting takes place in the future it takes place in somebody else's backyard, and not in your own," said General sir William Birdwood in the course of an address to the New Zealand Club in Wellington. "I said the other day that I realised the limitations that were placed upon the defensive preparations of a people numbering only one million," he continued. "You cannot go in for enormous expenditure, even for defence. But you can have a defipite policy to work' to. Make up your minds what you are going to do and let the people know how far Tuat falls short of perfection, as of necessity it must do. Then they will know what to expect in time of necessity. Never put yourself into the position of enduring what Lille endured." General Birdwood added that _ New Zealand's great need seemed to him to be additional 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 had been well maintained during most of the years of the war, in spite of the mobilisation of a large proportion of the men. The women evidently had been doing their duty, and the "Diggers" had done their duty at the same time by bringing back some 3000 brides, from {he Old Country. He had noticed in Australia that despite the drought the best crop of all—the children—was doing wonderfully well, and he did not doubt that as he travelled through New Zealand he would And lusty youngsters of the same stamp. Children were the. most valuable crop that any country could raise, but lie hoped that New Zealand 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 Zealand. Ihey had told the British "Tommies" to emigrate to a country that had abundant sunshine and that was prepared to reward the man who assisted in the tasks of national development. When all the New Zealand soldiers had been settled again in civil life tile Dominion ought to welcome thousands of the British soldiers.