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Factors taken into Consideration in Deciding the Role I should Recommend to the New Zealand Government for the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in the United Kingdom

When I arrived in the United Kingdom on 25 June I found it hard to take the threat of an invasion of Great Britain by the Germans as a serious project. I still believe that any such action is an act of desperation and one which we should welcome. There was, however, the fact that we had lost the whole of the equipment of the British Expeditionary Force (ten divisions) plus all the five months' war reserves which were in the base depots in France.

I saw our troops and their Commanders on arrival and then went to the War Office and interviewed General Dill and General Ironside. As a result of all my contacts at Home I came to the conclusions:

That Great Britain was in a tight corner and that the people were facing up to their difficulties most gallantly;

That the arrival of the New Zealanders and the Australians in the circumstances had been most opportune and had steadied the nation considerably;

That in the event of an invasion under present conditions any New Zealand troops in England, even though untrained and under-equipped, must be prepared to take their stand in the forefront and defend the Old Country. I felt this partly because I knew if we were to risk our lives we could not do so in a better cause than in fighting to safeguard the people in Great Britain, and also because I knew that should there be an attack, the first question that all our people in New Zealand would ask would be, ‘What part did our men take?’ I felt that you would all expect us to accept battle even on uneven terms in the defence of the heart of the Empire.

Knowing what was expected of us, and after consulting the New Zealand Government, I went to the War Office and told the authorities that ‘my Government want you to give us as much equipment as you can spare, and would wish you to cast the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in the role in which you may consider us to be of greatest assistance at the present moment.’