NEWS from one hundred years ago: NATIONAL DEFENCE

Maoriland Worker, the only weekly Labour Party newspaper, says in its editorial today that people have been hearing ‘quite a lot’ lately about ‘National Defence.’ Discussion has been led by the National Defence League and by newspapers supporting the Liberal Party and Reform Party. ‘We have been presented with imaginary invasions of barbarous hordes stalking through the land, pillaging, devastating and destroying all the desirable things we socially enjoy today. ... Have the people of this little country forgotten all the nice terms that were so glibly uttered during the last six years about the “Sword drawn for peace,” “Conflict of cultures,” and the rest of the cheap phrases that only served to sustain the hopes of the people during a period of war? ... The unsuspecting workers have blindly followed the carefully-prepared plans of the diplomat and militarist, only to find that each time they have been betrayed and fooled into bleeding and dying ... ’
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Maoriland Worker, 29 September 1920