Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. SATURDAY, JANUARY 18, 1930. THE NAVAL CONFERENCE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 50, Issue 83, 18 January 1930, Page 4

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. SATURDAY, JANUARY 18, 1930. THE NAVAL CONFERENCE.

A .oreat ninny Britons are uneasy" as to the outcome of the Five-Power Naval Conference which is to be opeis&l in London on TiTasday next. No one, of course, would wish that the Conference fail; everyone will welcome any step taken in the cause of peace and any lightening of the burden of armaments. Nevertheless there is this reservation in most, minds, that, the security of our ocean highways must not be jeopardised. The Great Waris not so distant that everv New Zeulander does not realise how vital it is to our trade to keep open the trade routes. Even were they closed, New Zealand might still exist in the financial and economic ruins that would remain to us. But let the narrow seas about the British Islesi be closed for .seven weeks, and the centre of the Empire, our protector and best customer, would be starved into submission. It is knowledge of these facts that is so disquieting when we remember that the head of the Empire's; delegation at the Conference will be the internationalist, Mr Rnnisav MacDonald. A moderate journal, the London /'Daily Telegraph," gave expression to the misgiving that "the Government is about to enter the Conference in a mood of reckless ■ sacrifice, and that Parliament will be faced with an agreement which ought never to be made." Britain has already made great naval sacrifices, which, according to expert opinion, have reduced her margin of security to vanishing point. When due allowance is made for the difference in the value of money, Britain is to-day spending 27 i mil lions/less on her Navy than in 1914. Moreover the personnel has been reduced by over forty-six thousand officers and men, and since the war Britain has scrapped naval vessels totalling 2,160,000 tons. Meanwhile the , naval expenditure of the United States has g-row'n from 140 million dollars in 1014 to 373 million in the present year; that of France, from 461 million to 2752- million francs; of Italy, from MO9 to 1282 million lire; and of Japan, from 96 to 269 million yen. Although the depreciation of the franc and lire discount very greatly the figures in the case of France and Italy, there is a real increase in all cases to set against the contraction of British expenditure. It i* most earnestly to be hoped that, in his anxiety to secure concessions from the other Powers. Mr MacDonald does not still further reduce our relative strength. Short of the millenium, Britain can never a fiord to barter away her ancient naval heritage.