SEPTEMBER 7 2019 LISTENER 3

EDITORIAL

When war comes

O

n September 3, it will be 80 years since New Zea-

land declared war on Nazi Germany and entered

World War II, a conflict that would reverberate in

the national psyche for decades. About 140,

New Zealand men and women served in the war,

and almost 12,000 were killed. But as the genera-

tion that experienced it dwindles in number, so

our collective memory of the event fades. Within

a few years, the Last Post will have been sounded over the grave

of the last New Zealand combatant.

All of which raises the question of whether we are in danger of

ignoring, or at least underestimating, the risk that New Zealand

will be caught up in war again.

It may surprise even some older New Zealanders to learn that

WWII came very close to home. The steam-

ship Turakina was sunk by a German raider off

the Taranaki coast with 36 lives lost; 16 people

were killed when the passenger liner Rangi-

tane came under German attack off East Cape;

and a float plane launched from a Japanese

submarine made reconnaissance flights over

Wellington and Auckland.

Australians have more vivid memories of

the war, having been subjected to nearly 100 Japanese aerial and

naval attacks. That may help explain why Australian defence

spending, as a proportion of GDP, is almost double that of New

Zealand.

But as the war recedes further into history, we seem to be in

danger of forgetting even its epochal atrocities. A recent New

Zealand opinion poll showed that 27% of the 1000 respondents

knew “only a little bit” about the Holocaust and 4% thought

it was a myth, or at least exaggerated. More worryingly, 30%

couldn’t be sure whether it was exaggerated or a myth. There’s a

risk that Holocaust denial, once the preserve of a lunatic fringe,

will gain currency not so much as a result of wilful anti-Semi-

tism, but of blind ignorance.

Can comparisons be drawn between then and now? New Zea-

land faces no direct military threat and hasn’t done since 1945.

That has contributed to a relaxed – some would say compla-

cent – attitude towards defence. But WWII showed how quickly

civilised countries can descend into barbarism.

Our economy

depends on trade

and open sea lanes.

We cannot pretend to

be immune from risk.

The founding editor of the Listener, Oliver Duff, was in no

doubt over whether New Zealand should take up arms

in 1939. Although the newly launched magazine was

from the outset independent in its instincts, Duff took a

robust approach on defence. “It is villainy to hide behind

the petticoats of peace when duty clearly calls us out to fight,”

he wrote in the magazine’s first Christmas editorial. In June 1941,

the Listener published an inspirational Māori quote on the cover:

WHAWHAI-TONU-AKE-AKE-AKE! – “Fight on for ever and for ever!”

In the decades that followed the war, politics was dominated

by returned servicemen who considered it their duty to ensure

New Zealand was combat-ready in case conflict broke out again.

But the rise of a new generation of politicians, many of them

veterans of protests against the deeply unpopular Vietnam War,

brought a sea change in attitudes. The result has been a shift

away from offensive capability to a defence policy focused on

politically less contentious activities.

A

s prime minister, Helen Clark justified the decision to scrap

the air force’s combat wing in 2001 by saying we lived in

“an incredibly benign strategic environment”. But do we

today?

US President Donald Trump is sabre-rattling over Iran, an

ascendant China is asserting itself militarily

in the fiercely contested South China Sea,

and there are discomfiting echoes of the Cold

War arms race in the belligerent posturing of

Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin

over cruise missiles. Meanwhile, the ruler of

nuclear-capable North Korea keeps the world

guessing as to his intentions.

None of these developments directly imper-

ils New Zealand, but our economy depends on trade and the

maintenance of open sea lanes, which could be threatened in the

event of war. We cannot pretend to be immune from risk.

Under current Defence Minister Ron Mark, the Government

has taken long-overdue strides towards upgrading its defence

inventory. That will help to blunt accusations that we don’t pull

our military weight and will have to rely on Australia and the

US to help us in a crisis. But our continuing shortcomings as a

defence partner were highlighted by the recent disclosure that

we were unable to contribute to naval patrols in the strategically

vital Strait of Hormuz because our only two combat ships are

being refitted in a Canadian dockyard.

Before the outbreak of WWII, New Zealand had a permanent

army of 352 men and was woefully unprepared for the cataclys-

mic conflict that eventuated. No one is suggesting that we’re

similarly exposed now, but the events of 80 years ago should

remind us that although we should always hope for the best, it’s

wise to prepare for the worst. l