DEFENCE POLICY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 June 1938, Page 7

DEFENCE POLICY

THE STATEMENT'BY SENIOR J OFFICERS. MR J. A. LEE’S CRITICISM. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) PALMERSTON N., This Day. Referring, in his address last night, to the statement on defence made recently by four senior officers of the New Zealand Territorial Force, Mr J. A. Lee said that in no small degree the statement was invalidated because most of the signatories were prominent in anti-Labour political activities. The value of a defence force, he continued, rendered it necessary that at no time should members of that force be allowed to engage in controversy, for such controversy would be to the detriment of any military organisation, and if carried on in public would be more likely to destroy the willingness to volunteer than almost any action that could be taken. A colonel, no more than a private, could have the rights of an organisation and at the same time shirk or ignore the duties of the organisation. If colonels desired to become politicians, they had the privilege of resigning and delivering political speeches. Mr Lee said he wanted to ask the colonels whether they thought the privilege of engaging in political controversy in a citizen army should be accorded to all ranks, from private to general, or whether they did not agree that the present regulations were not in the best interest of a well-disciplin-ed force. Surely the colonels were not going to take action of a sort for which they would insist subsequently on disciplining the men under their command. Such an attitude could not be tolerated in a democracy. Either regulations were wrong and had to be abolished to allow every soldier as well as every colonel to stand on a soapbox, or regulations were sound and were in the interests of good order and discipline. He would be pleased to hear the colonels’ viewpoint on this issue.