DEFENCE POLICY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 June 1938, Page 8

DEFENCE POLICY

EXPANSION ADVOCATED VIEWS OF NATIONAL < PARTY Mr HAMILTON CRITICISES HIGH COMMISSIONER. STAND AT GENEVA DEPLORED. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) HAMILTON, This Day. Various aspects of the defence problem were dealt with by the Hon A. Hamilton in his address last evening. Mr Hamilton said that if the National Party were returned to power, an immediate investigation of defence problems would be undertaken, in cooperation with the Imperial authorities, with a view to a rapid expansiop. “The position of our present land force is very disquieting, having fallen from over 20,000 a few years ago to less than 8000 today, and of that number only about 3000 attended the annual camps this year,” Mr Hamilton said. “The seriousness of the present situation is indicated by the published statement of a group of senior territorial officers, a few days ago. I think a great mistake has been made in wiping out the old regimental names, and the traditions associated with them. We will restore those names and endeavour to provide a volunteer force of, say, 15,000 men highly efficient and mobile.

“We also need completely mechanised artillery, completely motorised infantry, an up-to-date radio corps and efficient anti-aircraft batteries to pro-' tect our centres of population, and an up-to-date air force. I am not a military man, but it seems to me that what is needed in connection with our defence system is a better public understanding of our requirements as a nation, and an immeasurably better appreciation of defence as an essential part of our national affairs.

“The National Party will seek to elevate defence to its proper place in the esteem of the people; we will endeavour to make defence much more attractive, and much more popular and worth while than it is today. We will try and restore the old-time viewpoint that participation in defence is a matter of loyal and patriotic devotion to a national cause. I think every New Zealander will agree that, in regard to foreign policy, we should co-operate to the full with Great Britain. New Zealand simply cannot stand alone. The defence of New Zealand is not merely a local affair; it is a part of the defence system of the British Empire. “In foreign policy we must stand wholeheartedly with Great Britain, and I feel sure that the people of the country will deplore the stand taken by Mr W. J. Jordan, our High Commissioner, in expressing strong opinions diametrically opposed to Great Britain’s foreign policy. If we are to have differences of opinion with the Mother Land, then let them be discussed privately, and not in the hearing of many nations who would rejoice in the very thought of two members of the' British Commonwealth having even the slightest disagreement. Mr Jordan has done well as High Commissioner, with the exception of these unfortunate lapses on a question that, above all others, we simply must stand loyally together. “I believe that Mr Chamberlain is making a real attempt to prevent the nations of Europe from getting into one or other of two opposing groups in Europe. His policy is to avert war, and we should assist him by every means in our power, instead’of making his job more difficult.”