Not The Perry.

Proceedings were opened by a Mr. Perry not up to his usual standard. His comforting statement that there was at present no danger of attack from overseas was his only really clear and definite remark for the evening, and he passed on at once to state that the question of defence must nevertheless be faced, not because of any crisis at present, but because of Chamber lain. A sort of silent question mark reminiscent of pictorial advertising rising over the hall, he explained that the undemocratic foreign policy of the British Government ought not to be supported by a democratic colony. And since that leaves New Zealand a lonely, unsupported [unclear: morsel] to be gulped by anyone, he advocated a union of the great strongholds of enlightenment—Soviet Russia, Australia, Holland and the United States—in an intimidating strength which would safeguard peace. How this union was to be brought about was not explained.

In support, Norman Morrison, eminently open to conviction from the audience, gave a sound and practical resume of the disadvantages which would arise from increased defence—the heavy taxation necessary, which would reduce the standard of living, the fact that conscription would be a certainty.