EMPIRE DEFENCE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 June 1938, Page 8

EMPIRE DEFENCE

MANY CHANGES IN MILITARY PROBLEMS' “If you read carefully the recent speeches on defence problems of Mr Chamberlain and Mr Hore-Belisha in England, Mr Mackenzie King in Canada, Mr Lyons in Australia, and other Empire statesmen, you will see that a new pattern of British Commonwealth defence is gradually emerging.” said Mr H. V. Hodson, editor of the “Round Table,” in a recent broadcast talk. “First, there are the technical military changes—above all, the rise

of air power and the growing mechanisation of armies. Material equipment like tanks and lorries and machineguns is now much more important than mere numbers, although numbers may be wanted too. In a contest between equally well-equipped is today generally superior to the land forces, the power of the defence power of attack. But in the air the power of defence is relatively weak. Hence there are grave strategic threats to centres of population or industry, and to communications that have to pass through the bottle-necks of ports and docks and narrow straits. From the British point of view, this means that while we have a centre of great vulnerability to defend here in England, our overseas communications are also faced with a new peril. This point becomes all the more important when we consider the second group of changes since 1914 which affect our security. These are the changes in the world of international politics They are rather difficult to summarise in diplomatic language, but you will see for yourself what I mean when I remind you that when the World War broke out the British Navy had no first-class responsibilities either in the Mediterranean, which was taken care of by France, or in the Pacific, where the Anglo-Japanese alliance had allowed us to withdraw all but a very small contingent of warships. Today the defence responsibilities of the British Commonwealth are both much greater and more widely scattered.”