TRADE ROUTES

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 278, 6 September 1935, Page 7

TRADE ROUTES

THE MATTER OF PROTECTION.

IMPORTANCE OF THE NAVY.

(Per Press Association.) AUCKLAND, September 5. “The Air Force can never displace the seaborne forces of the Navy in the protection of the great ocean trade routes of the Empire. This is a most important point for there are many who would lead! us to believe that the Air Force has displaced the Navy,” said Commodore the Hon. E. R. Drummond, Officer Commanding the New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy, in an address at the annual meeting of the Auckland Branch of the Nayy League. “The troth is that both are essential to our safety,” the Commodore added. “They have separate functions and to compare their relative importance is to draw an invidious distinction. By fighting ships only can protection be afforded! to the merchant ships which carry our commerce the length and breadth'- of the Empire. The Navy League has always realised this and it has worked hard to educate the public . to the need of maintaining suitable naval strength.” The League of Nations was an ideal. It was doing wonderful work, but to maintain peace it must have the threat of force behind it to back it up. Unfortunately it had not now got it. The motto: “If you want peace prepare for war” held good in the present day. That the world situation was about as serious as it could be was realised by everybody. At the moment Italy was the storm •centre, but Japan with her claim to naval parity and her activities in the Far East, and Germany, who was rearming and would shortly be asking for the return of her pre-war colonies, all caused great concern to the British Empire. . . “We are faced with a’ situation which at present we have not the strength to cope,” the speaker added. “As always after a great war the cry was for peace. Great Britain, to prove her sincerity, disarmed and set an example which unfortunately other nations only discussed! and did not wholeheartedly follow, with the result that we find! ourselves in this most seirious situation.” In regard to the air, the Government was taking steps to produce adequate forces and this important arm was being brought up to a suitable standaid 1 of strength. The need for an adequate Air Force to protect London and other great cities was at once apparent, but the fact that unless Great Britain had an adequate Navy, the public would not get their food was more difficult to bring home.