30 MARCH 1985, Page 21

Costly

Sir: Paul Johnson's claim that Australia and New Zealand 'have always been accus- tomed to getting defence on the cheap' by courtesy of Britain and the US (Pacific Cold War', 23 March) overlooks the con- tribution made by their armed services in both world wars on battlefields very distant from the South Pacific. The figures for New Zealand are: 1914-18 (population one million) number of deaths 18,148; 1939-45 (population 11/2 million) deaths 11,987. The losses in the first world war, according to one authority, 'were greater than those of Belgium, which had six times the population and was a battlefield'.

Christine Brownlie

43 Fairfax Road, Chiswick, London W4