NEW ZEALAND'S WAR EFFORT.

Taranaki Daily News, 26 March 1921, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND'S WAR EFFORT.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —I write to protest against the garbled summary of my speech sent you by the Press Association regarding New Zealand's war effort. I did not say, nor imply, that conscription was introduced in New Zealand to compel the British Government to send ships to this Dominion to carry away the farmers' produce. What I did say was that a.ftes America entered the war arid there were thousands of trained men and large quantities of munitions and foodstuffs waiting - tp be .shipped across the Atlantic, undue pressure was brought to bear on the British Government to direct some, of the ships-to New Zealand that could have been more profitably used by making six trips across the Atlantic for every trip to New Zealand; and I contended .that the cause of the Empire or the cause of thq Allies was not served by such a policy, and that! a grave and unnecessary hardship was inflicted on New Zealand , tied men and their families by our Government insisting that they should be sent 'n ships that could carry six Americans for every New Zealander thus sent. In support of my statement I quoted the Prime Minister’s reply to a deputation - of pfarmors which tad waited upon him -at ha; period. Mr. Massey is reported to have said: "I understand that the proposal w(is that' New Zealand could do its duty sufficiently by producing food for the Allied armies, but if, and until the end of the war, we were to depend upon America for our soldiers, it would mean that all our ships would be re-> quired to carry troops and munitions, and we should be left with our produce Qn our hands.’’ The whole story is a long one, and without going into details, suffice it to say that as a result of the policy of creating new brigades out of accumulations of reinforcements, thereby enormously extending the battle front which New Zealanders had to defend, New Zealand has suffered in killed and disabled more heavily in the 'war than did Belgium; and my contention was that the New Zealand Parliament and the New Zealand people were not consulted on a policy involving the lives and limbs of the brave fellows who left these shores in defence of their Empire—B9,ooo of them before a single conscription ballot was taken in New Zealand. General Sir lan Hamilton, in a preface to the official history, "New Zealand’s Effort in the Great’ War," fixes the number of Belgium’s fighting force at 13,000. Whittaker's latest computation (1921) fixes the total losses for Belgium, with a population of 7,500,000 at 42,000 In killed and missing. New Zealand s losses in killed was 17,000.-1 am, etc, . ’ J. McCOMBS, Wellington, March 18.