OPERATION SAFEGUARD
Sir.-The broadcast of the recent air defence exercise held in Auckland brings to mind the remark supposedly made by a surgeon at the conclusion of a difficult operation: "The operation was a great success, though the patient died." This exercise, termed "Operation Safeguard," theoretically involved planes , carrying hydrogen bombs. According to "Open Microphone" a hit was scored on the King’s Wharf power station, but the raider was "shot down before it could do further damage." In the event of an actual raid with hydrogen bombs that one "hit" would have destroyed all of Auckland and two to three hundred thousand of its population. Isn’t it utterly callous, stupid and futile to talk of shooting down the plane responsible before it did further damage? "Open Microphone" reports that the exercise was valuable for the lessons learned. There is but one lesson to be learned from such exercises, and that is. that war no longer serves any purpose, least of all that of safeguarding the lives and property of the citizens of the nations involved. The time, effort and money that went into this war game could, and should, be used for studies to make the United Nations an effective instrument of world order. This year the Charter of UN comes up for review. Here is an opening for a real operation safeguard. Here is an opportunity for mankind to make the United Nations a world government with power to make and enforce laws prohibiting armaments and compelling the nations to settle their disputes in court. "Operation Safeguard" will have been useful if, and this is a slim hope, it demonstrates to a few more people the futility of war and the need government as a substitute for the international anarchy that makes war inevit-
able.
G. C.
TITMAN
(Auckland).
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19550513.2.12.1
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 32, Issue 824, 13 May 1955, Page 5
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300OPERATION SAFEGUARD New Zealand Listener, Volume 32, Issue 824, 13 May 1955, Page 5
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