WORLD CRISIS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 April 1939, Page 6

WORLD CRISIS

NEW ZEALAND DEFENCE NEEDS HON R. SEMPLE URGES READINESS. LIBERTIES THAT MUST BE UPHELD. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) FOXTON. April 15. “There has never been a time in history when those living within lhe British Empire have had to defend the principles for which their forefathers fought, as limy have to defend them today,” said the Minister of Public Works. Mr Semple, replying to the toast of “Parliament” at a luncheon given by lhe Manawatu County Council to celebrate tin? opening of lite tiestle bi'idge al. Whirokino. “The democratic system is at the crossroads.’’ said Mr Semple. “At this very moment there are conspiracies abroad to destroy that democracy which is so essential to and so ingrained in llio British character."

He was not an alarmist, but he knew some things the man in the street did not know, said Mr Semple. With, the great advances made in transport, particularly in the air, New Zealand was no longer in a safe corner of the world, and it was the duty of every fit man to hold himself in readiness to defend his country. "The British system of Government, is, I believe, the best, ever devised in human history,” Mr Semple continued. There were people who thought democracy had outlived its usefulness, but he was not one of those. To suggest that a country could be better governed by one man was to him the height of imbecility. Lord Nuffield had told him recently that he had seen at first hand something of the dictatorship system, and that he would far rather be dead than live under it: Not only were civic liberties destroyed but religious liberty also. The British people preferred to be captains of their own destiny, not mere cogs in a wheel. People who were content to follow one man were apparently incapable of following the dictates of the mind given them by their Creator. “Much as we might differ on ordinary questions of the day,” said Mr Semple, “we cannot differ on the system which gives us. the right to govern ourselves.” It seemed to him a tragedy that man’s great inventive genius was not used for the sole purpose of benefitting mankind instead of being used for war purposes. Man had an undeniable right to a full share of the things nature had given him, and it was a pity that man could not rid himself of his lust for power. He had been asked what he did in 1914. His answer .to that was that he had got . into trouble for condemning War profiteering; nd man, he considered, had a right, to enrich himself at the expense of the sufierings of his fellow man. “If war comes, the New Zealand Government will, hot stand for profiteering,” he said. New Zealand was not in the safety zone, it was in the danger zone. Every physically fit man in New Zealand should be prepared to sacrifice his life in defence of the democratic system his country enjoyed, and he himself was fully prepared to make that sacrifice. He was not an alarmist, but the danger was very real. If war came the battlefield would be the world The Government had been advised that New Zealand’s first line of defence was in the air. , , “No single man is big enough to control the destinies of a nation of people',” said Mr Semple to the accompaniment of sustained applause.