DEFENCE OF DOMINION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 April 1939, Page 4

DEFENCE OF DOMINION

POLICY OF THE LABOUR GOVERNMENT. PREPARATIONS TO MEET EMERGENCY. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. “In the sphere of national defence much progress has taken place, though it must be stated that some difference of opinion as to methods exists both within the party and out of it. 1 ” said the Prime Minister, Mr Savage, in presenting the report of the Parliamentary Labour Party to the annual conference of the New Zealand Labour Party in Wellington yesterday. “The remits before the conference will give ample scope for discussion on the matter,” Mr Savage said. “Since the Labour Government assumed office, defence' expenditure has trebled and I am satisfied that the money is being spent sensibly. “But the mere increase in defence expenditure is not enough. In common with every other democratic country in the world we are engaged in planning to prepare our peace-time economy to meet any emergency that may arise. The troubled state of the world justifies the closest possible scrutiny of our attitude toward defence problems, and I am in no doubt that we should make every effort to defend the standard of living in the democracy we have built.”