Burying Our Heads in the Sand While the Empire is Threatened

Radio Record, 4 September 1936, Page 17

Burying Our Heads in the Sand While the Empire is Threatened

HE thing that most strikes a new immigrant like myself to this splendid Dominion is the emptiness of it. This general impression is confirmed by statistics, which show the population per square™ mile of some typical countries to be:-Belgium 700, Great Britain 470, Japan 320, Australia 2, New Zealand 15. Wellinformed authorities are of opinion that New Zealand is capable of carrying about 10 million people and Australia even 70 millions. One repeatedly hears it said that both Australia and New Zealand are young countries, implying that this lack of population will in due course rectify itself.

Have we in New Zealand any right to consicer ourselves a young nation? Youth surely implies future growth. If census statistics and the forecasts’ of experts who study them are any guide, the population of this country. as well as of Australia and Great Britain, will, within a decade or so, not merely cease to increase, but begin to decline. . It may be asked, "Do we really mind this? We are extremely well off with only 13 million people and have probably the highest standard of living in the world. Why worry about more population?" Idealists and optimists look forward to the day when wars and conquests will no longer be permitted. They say:-"No citizen is permitted to seize another citizen’s property by force, and this principle should be applied in ) a properly organised community of nations."* To make the \ parable complete, however, they ought, but always forget, to ‘add "but in a civilised community one citizen may quite properly and rightly become possessed of another citizen’s

land or belongings by a redistribution of property imposed by the Government for the general good of the community." What right in common justice shall we have to reserve indefinitely for a handful of British this splendid territory if other countries are overcrowded and erying for room for expansion? ‘ But in any case recent happenings in Europe indicate that the prospect of such an organised and law-abiding community of nations has receded into the distant future, and that the era of sovereignty of individual nations and of policies of national self-interest is to continue for some time to eome, Under such a system is there any direct and more or less immediate danger to New Zea-

land? There appears to be a very definite one and that is from Japan. There are people who think that this is a matter which should not be openly discussed. This appears a most ostrich-like attitude. Perhaps there is no real threat, but surely the right thing to do is. to look at the matter squarely-not merely to bury our heads in the sand.

he relative densities of population have already een stated, but this is not allJapan’s population is increasing at the rate of nearly a million a year. A densely populated country can support its. people by building up an industrial system. This requires markets, and these she is acquiring by her steady and determined policy in China and Manchukuo. But this method: by itself is unsatisfactory, léading, as it does, to q badly balanced. and unhealthy social system. What Japan needs, and needs _ badly, are some lands to which she can ‘send her surplus population. it is. of first importance to renlise that, unlike the Chinese, the Japanese cannot settle and make their homes in (Continued on next page.)

1 TTC ICTR LOO GLO UC LUD IL! Wall What of the Empire ? : ‘* What Next? ’"’ Series AIR MARSHAL SIR ROBERT CLARK HALL, in this contribution to the ‘‘What Next?" Series, warns New Zealanders against the apathy toward our national defence. Now a resident of Christchurch, Sir Robert served in the Great War. He was Director of Equipment for the Air Ministry from 1929 to 1931, and Air Officer Commanding the Coastal Area, 1931-34. THR,

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extreme of ¢limate, They require a tempetate climate very similar to that which we British néed.- And every cotintry In the world with a temperate lated or else closed to them by imclimate is either already fully popumigration laws. Is it to be wohderéd at, that with her great and growing overcrowdedness the sparsely populated British Dominions in the South Pacifie should be coveted by her? Let us next consider whether the actual conquest of these units of the British Empire is a real possibility or merely the nightmare of elderly pessimists. Recent affairs in the Mediterranean brought tg general notice the fact that practically the whole of the British Navy was required to deal with a menacing situation in Europe. The navy is not, and probably never again will be, strong enough to conduct a war simulianeously both in Europe and in the Pacifie, Should, therefore, the Navy at some ‘futtire date be oceupied in BRurope, and should Japan elect that moment to at‘tain what she wanted, her navy would ‘have undisputed command of the sea ‘in the western Pacific: Given this one, but indispensable. -condition-command of the sea-there _is In the present state of our defences nothing whatever to make the conquest of these islands n very hagardous or even a very diffictl: operation, Cut off, AS we Should be by enemy command of the sea, from all reinforcements, munitions and petrol, we would at present offer no effective resistance to an nt tn anata Shaner i whsmascan’

enemy of even 50,000 men-one-tenth the size of the army that Italy recently sent to Abyssinia. There are, of course, other and more cheerful sides to the picture. The population of Japan, for example, will presumably not continue to expand indefinitely at the present rate. She would searcely dare to venttire on largescale military operations in the south if Russian armies unoccupied by a war in Burope were in full strength in Mongolia. The United States might be able and willing to render assistance in spite of the enormous distances away of her bases. But it is unwise to count too much on such eventualities, By means primarily of aircraft and mobile military units it shouid be possible, even with our small population, to render invasion an extremely dangerous if not imposgible operation. So defended we could during a témporary loss of command of the sea, at least hold out as a beleaguered fortress for a considerable period. What then of the future? I submit that if our children and grandchildren are to remain in oceupation of this land, we must aim firstly at a rapid increase of population and secondly at a strengthening and ad- justment of our defences, so that while this is being effected any attempt at conqtiest by invasion would not be worth the risk involved. The first object can probably be attnined only by a bold policy of immigration, the second by peisonal sacrifice and inconvenience. Our statesmen can only do what public opinion urges them to do.