DEFENCE NEEDS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 September 1938, Page 7

DEFENCE NEEDS

POSITION OF AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND. IMPORTANCE OF PACIFIC • ROUTES. Unrest in Europe and the possibility of Britain’s hands being tied nearer home have awakened Australia to a fuller consciousness of her need for greater security should the Pacific become a theatre of war. At the present time Australia and New Zealand look to Singapore as the hub of British defence in the East, but the range of operations from this base is inadequate to ensure complete immunity from attack from the north and north-east. It is to be expected, the Bank of New South Wales points out in its latest circular, that the Commonwealth should view with suspicion recent efforts at economic penetration in the islands which form natural outposts to the north of the continent. The circular stresses the importance of the Pacific trade routes along which is carried about one-fourth of Australian oversea trade. They are of even greater importance to New Zealand which, lying twelve hundred miles further to the east than Australia, makes much greater use of the Panama Canal and the route via Cape Horn. Moreover, New Zealand is equally as dependent as Australia upon the Netherlands East Indies for the major portion of her oil supplies, the only other large supplier being the United States of America. The defence of New Zealand, therefore, is linked inevitably with that of the Commonwealth. The expansion of defence forces and the organisation of munitions manufacture in Australia should be of interest to New Zealanders. Trade with the Empire is of the utmost importance to both countries, and as their interests lie so closely with those of Great Britain, it seems inevitable that they will be drawn into any conflict which involves the Mother Country. New Zealand, like Australia, the circular observes, must be mindful of her obligations as a member of the Empire, for the British Commonwealth of Nations well armed and determined to resist aggression will be the surest guarantee of world peace.