EMPIRE DEFENCE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 204, 30 July 1937, Page 8

EMPIRE DEFENCE

IMR SAVAGE INTERVIEWED. DOAIINION’S POSITION. Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, July .29. Rt, Hori. M. J. Savage, in an interview, said to-day that when in England he had sought the frank opinion of the British authorities on the question of defence and how tho Dominion’s policy should be regulated to fit into the Imperial scheme. When the New Zealand Government had all the evidence it required it would discuss the question of making the necessary changes. He said he had told the First Sea Lord that if we had to defend New Zealand alone we could not develop sufficient strength to pull a herring off a gridiron. New Zealand wanted information about the relationship of the various branches of the services. He had made it known that New Zealand was concerned about the part the navy would play, and the reply he had received was that circumstances would have to decide what would be the best thing to do, but‘it was commonsense to suppose that the two cruisers on the New Zealand station would remain at their place and would be in New Zealand waters. All that the British authorities asked for was the co-operation of the British Dominions in a common scheme of defence. Air Savage said that tho air was the coming thing, but everyone realised that the navy was just as necessary today as ever; in fact, •it was more necessary. The New Zealand Government had a committee working along the line of the Committee of Imperial Defence at Home. Regarding the Singapore Base, Air Savage said that no one could say precisely what would happen in a war involving the Erst and the West, but there was no doubt that those in control at Home realised that the base must play a big part in the defence of the British Commonwealth.