The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. SATURDAY, AUGUST 28, 1900. THE NAVAL CONFERENCE.

Auckland Star, Volume XL, Issue 205, 28 August 1909, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 28, 1900. THE NAVAL CONFERENCE.

For the cause that lacks assistance. For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance. And the good that ice c*n do.

We may take it that the statement just made by Mr. Asquith in the House of Commons about the conclusions reached by the Naval Conference represent everything that we are likely to learn officially on this interesting subject for some time to come. And though a great deal of the information that the Premier conveyed has been more or less anticipated, it is of great importance to the Empire that the rumours and conjectures that have been so widely circulate? should be thu3 authoritatively confirmed or contradicted. Perhaps the most significant feature of the Premier's disclosures is the stress that he lays upon the unanimity that has characterised the proceedings, and the complete agreement that now existe between the British military and naval authorities, on the one hand, and the colonial Governments on the other, on the subject of Imperial Defence. Hitherto there has been not so much disagreement between England and her dependencies as to the best means that could be devised for securing the safety of the Empire and its integral parts, ac lack of i mutual understanding and symi pathy. British statesmen looking only I at the small amount of pecuniary aid offered by the colonies to England as a contribution toward the upkeep of her fleets, have too often sneered at the reluctance of colonials to offer «a large naval subsidy, as if their hesitation were due to meanness or ingratitude. On the other hand, colonial statesmen have often failed to realise the community of interest that renders it necessary for the colonies, as well as England, to bear a share of the heavy burden of expenditure in defence of the Empire. But as we often find in ordinary practical life., as soon as the representatives of these antagonistic opinions met to discuss their differences, doubts and misconstructions and mistakes were speedily dissipated. If the Naval Conference had done nothing else it would have marked a noteworthy epoch in our Imperial history, because it has cleared away the misunderstandings that have so far paralysed all attempts to arrange a concerted and cooperative scheme of Imperial defence between England and her dependencies. We have heard so much of the naval side of our defence policy late that we are sometimes liable to forget that it has a military side as well. Following on the Naval Conference, a special military conference was held at the War Office to deal with the second line of Imperial defence, and its results deserve careful attention. For the first time in our history an attempt has been made to co-ordinate local and central policies «f nation*! defence, jjadex *ha awgHiisMx^

of an Imperial General Staff. The estaT)lishment of this controlling organisation early this year passed almost unnoticed in the rush of public events; but this alone is enough to render Mr. Haldane's ■tenure of office memorable. England has at last adopted the commonsense and ibusinesslike principle of entrusting her military affairs to the care of a body of experts selected for that special purpose, and the first important duty that the new General Staff has undertaken has been to draw up a complete scheme of miiitaTy organisation covering the ■whole area of the Empire. It is, of course, impossible to enter into details yet, but Mr. Asquith explains that one general principle has been kept in view throughout—that while the military forces raised and maintained by the various colonies and dominions ■will, of couree, be adapted primarily to local meeds, the whole of them are to be so "standardised" that they will be capable of being moved from one portion of the Empire to another without losing their efficiency, and can thus be concentrated wherever the necessities of Imperial policy may require them. The Premier , , of course, emphasises the necessity ior "preserving each dominion's complete autonomy," and we may safely assume that there is no possibility that any part of the Empire ■will be exposed to risk through being recklessly denuded of its local military force. But .the great point gained is that these scattered levies, being armed and equipped on uniform lines, and drilled and disciplined and organised on the same general principles, will ibe practically identical as fighting unite, and can thus, as Mr. Asquith puts it, "be readily combined into one homogeneous Imperial Army." This conception of a homogeneous defence force for Imperial purposee is, of course, easier to carry out practically in the case of the navy; and it is because this idea has dominated the imagination of British statesmen and naval commanders so powerfully that the colonies, so far, have been able to secure a little j sympathy at Home for their aspirations ' after navies of their own. At the Naval Conference it seems that the widest latitude was allowed our representatives, not only in expressing their views, but in choosing the line of policy that their respective countries desired to adopt. Th\is Xew Zealand, preferring to continue its present subsidy, is to have a portion of thi! Pacific squadron detached from the China station guarding its shores. Cm the other hand, Canada and Australia, preferring to 'lay the foundations of their own fleets," are prepared to go to heavy expenditure to secure the desired end. The Commonwealth, it seems, will need to pay half a million annually to cover its loan for naval purposes, while England pays a quarter of a million a year towards the colonial fleet; and Canada, we may presume, will go at least as far as Australia. We in New Zealand, it may be observed in passing, will continue our £ 100,000 subsidy, and will pay about £ 150,000 a year for interest and sinking fund on account of our Dreadnought offer. Our 'battleship, by the way, is to ibe transformed into a first-class cruiser of the Indomitable type, which will help to wa-tch the commercial waterways in the Pacific; and no one in New Zealand is likely to object if it is found necessary to station our cruiser somewhere near the naval centre of gravity in the Far East. We have already explained how local needs are to be conaultgd by stationing three separate squadrons within striking distance of the coasts of Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. But in our eyes the co-operation of those widely-dispersed units is more important to us all than their individual existence; and to secure that end, the Imperial authorities insist tnat the colonial fleets and squadroas must consist; of warships and cruisers built on the same linee and equipped in the same manner. It is only in this way that it will be possible to secure the maximum of effective fighting power through the conjunction of the various sections of England's navies; and it is because the decisions of the Imperial Conference illustrate so plainly and forcibly the need for this conjoint action that they mark so important an advance toward finality in the development of our policy of Imperial defence.