Lanterna Rally

Author: William David McIntyre

Publisher: Christchurch, N.Z. : University of Canterbury Press

Published: 1988

Total Pages: 314

ISBN-13:

How does a small country prepare for war? How well prepared was New Zealand in 1939? ... this is the first comprehensive study of defence policy in peace-time. It considers everything from the grand strategy of alliances to military organisation and 'nuts and bolts". It poses vital questions which all Governments have to face. What must we defend? What can be threatened? Who might have the motive and the capacity to pose a threat? What circumstances might permit an attack? How could an enemy be deterred? If deterrence fails, how can an attack be countered? What allies will assist? David McIntyre shows, from files in the National Archives and surviving private papers, that between 1919 and 1939 successive New Zealand governments identified the Dominion's security with that of the British Empire by planning to send land and air expeditionary forces to help the British and by building a small navy as a "Division of the Royal Navy". New Zealand even helped to pay for the Singapore Naval Base. Yet German rearmament in the 1930s and aggressive acts by Japan and Italy cast doubts on imperial strategy. At the same time New Zealand was increasingly pre-occupied with the strategic position of the Pacific Islands. Not only were the Dominion's forces called on in four "police actions" in the islands, but there was an extraordinary dispute with the USA over the possession of numerous small islands, and New Zealand accepted responsibility for the defence of some of Britain's island colonies. Included in this study are fascinating glimpses of some great personalities -- such as Carl Berendsen, who was a one man ministry of foreign affairs, General Sinclair Burgess, who modernised the army, and Group-Captain Cochrane, the first Chief of Air Staff. We follow the running debate over compulsory military training ; observe the role of the armed services during civil disturbances; and see Bill Jordan's dramatic contributions in the League of Nations in the late 1930s. A concluding survey of the war effort, 1939-45, considers whether New Zealand prepared for the "right" war."--Inside front cover.