NEW ZEALAND’S PART

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 January 1940, Page 6

NEW ZEALAND’S PART

| WAR EFFORT SURVEYED BY MR FRASER — ALL ELIGIBLE URGED TO JOIN FORCES. DEFENCE OF VOLUNTARY SYSTEM (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON. This Day. A comprehensive review of New Zealand’s contribution Io the war effort of the British Commonwealth of Nations was given by tin* DeputyPrime Minister, Air Fraser, in. a national radio broadcast from Wellington last evening. ••'The Mother Country and the other Dominions,” he said, "are doing their share nobly and well. Let each and all of us play our part. Our promises and commitments to Britain must be hononured. We must do all we can to help in achieving victory nationally and individually. Those who are eligible and can join up with the forces should certainly do so. The New Zealand Government believes in the voluntary system. It must, succeed." "The aim of the Government.” Mr Fraser said in the course of his address, "is to make New Zealand’s war effort fully commensurate with the desire of the people and the resources of the Dominion. Obviously, the first steps that we were required to take related to the defence of our own shores, and within an hour or two of the outbreak of war examination services had been instituted at the defended ports, vital points were guarded, coast defences were manned and a coast-watching organisation was established." Having referred to the renown won by the Achilles and to the training of the First Echelon. Mr Fraser continued: "Steps are now being taken to call up a further body of volunteers, and I have no doubt at all that young men of the same type will be found in the required numbers. The Dominion has been fortunate in securing, as commander of this Expeditionary Force, a world renowned soldier of proved courage and experience in MajorGeneral Freyberg. AIR TRAINING PLANS. “In the air we had already laid the foundation for an efficient air force, and before war broke out arrangements were in hand for the training for the Royal Air Force of 1350 observers. pilots and air-gunners per annum. On the outbreak of war steps were taken to accelerate and extend this programme, and we have now agreed, with the British and other Dominion Governments, to take part in the enormous air training scheme in Canada, under which the Dominion 'has agreed to train hundreds of pilots here in New Zealand annually and to send to Canada for advanced training even greater numbers of pilots, air-gunners and observers. The total men required from New Zealand for training under this scheme is little less than 10,000. New Zealand airmen have already distinguished themselves with their conspicuous bravery and enterprise, and have won great praise. “That, in general terms, it what we have, up to the present, undertaken in the direct military effort, but that is not all. This Dominion is the source of foodstuffs and other supplies which will be of the utmost value to the common cause. We have already arranged to sell to the United Kingdom at a reasonable price large quantities of our products which are required for the purpose of the war. and we have offered to increase the quantities available or to provide additional products as may be required.” MUST BEND OUR BACKS. After appealing to all eligible to join, the forces. Mr Fraser continued: — “The rest of us should and must bend cur back to the many tasks on hand. Men are leaving the farms to join the Expeditionary Force. Their places must be taken by other men who must be willing to leave less essential work to maintain the production of food commodities which means so much to the people of Britain and which we have promised to supply. National service must be the principle, the precept and the practice of all of us. . 1 “We must throw ourselves, everyone of us, wholeheartedly into the great work of our national effort for the future of New Zealand, of the British Commonwealth and of the world, for all that is of good and decent repute in the world today depends in some measure on what we do. It is difficult in New Zealand with none of our important social activities and amenities even curtailed to realise that there is a war in Europe, to grasp the fact that Great Britain and our kinsman there, the men. women and children of our race and blood, are daily liable to destruction, devastation and death, and are bravely and nobly facing that terrible fact. They are looking to us to rally to their help.”