THE DOMINIONS AND THE NAVY.

Auckland Star, Volume XLV, Issue 14, 16 January 1914, Page 8

THE DOMINIONS AND THE NAVY.

GERMAN MENACE AND YELLOW \ PERIL. A TRUE IMPERIAL NAVY. (From Our Special Correspondent.) LONDON, December 12. "Tiie Dominions and the Navy" was fhe subject of an interesting address delivered by Lieutenant Hordern, R.N., at the Royal United Service Institution last Wednesday afternoon. Lieutenant llordeni, taking as hie text a statement .by Sir John. Colom'b in the House of Commons in 1891 that it was our duty to ■■remember thai it was the interest of ever}' part of the Empire to aseiist in .keeping the waterways clear," proceeded to lay J'own and develop the proposition •that, we could not expect the United .Kingdom to continue mraoh longer to declare war or negotiate without giving •the Dominions ;i right to share in the decision, and th.it as foreign policy and defence could :iot be sepa.ra.ted there should be ire-c-.ted something in the •nature of an Imperial Committee on Foreign Affairs in which all parts of the Empire .would be represented. A Committee of Imperial Defence had been formed which might some day become an Imperial Committee of Defence. 'An important step in thds direction, had Ibeen taken during the last few years, the Dominions having been informed that, if ithey liked each, to appoint a to reside here he would lie a miem'ber of the Defence Committee, and 3iave access to the Foreign .Secretary. We ■could only hope that this might lead to «amettun°: more deifinite. for, until the Dominions w-ere associated with lie yi directing foreign policy, joint action in defence of that policy 'would ibe difficult to arrange. Coming to the more immediate question of naval defence, Lieut. iHordern pointed out that 'there was a growing disposition on the part ■of Eng3ish people to look upon the Navy as purely a defensive force for the protecttion of the British Isles. If the \a.vy ■was so regarded in 'die United Kingdom, could we wonder that the Dominions also thought that they needed navies for eelf-defenee and desired in consequence to tie as many ships as they could to therir awn coasts? Granting, [however, that i:he duty of the Navy was "to keep ■the waterways free," and that it was to fhe interest of all parts of the Empire to assist in 'this, we bad next -to consider ■whether there should Ibe one N-avy or five. Lieut. Hordem pronounced strongly on. favour of one Navy under Imperial' .*>ebhtrol,~ the controlling body being rep- : ,r.-3'esentatave of .all parts of the Empire. to"'ihe Empire's naval de-' fence. ..If the British 'Empire 'were federated, as were the German Empire ami the American Republic, we -would never dream of creating several navies under separate control for the Empire's defence. But as matters stood to-day, the possession of strong navi-es by Australia <nnd Canada, permanently stationed in the pacific, "would mot materially fitrengthen the naval forces of the Empire, or enable the British Fleet in the North Sea to be reduced by a single ship. It could, lie urged, never (be Tight strategy that the Na-vy should beieplit up info several bodies, separated by'Tialf i:he circumference of the globe, unless each was strong enough to deal by iteerf with any probable enemies in its own part -of 'the world. '■■■ THE SEPARATE FLEET IDEA; However, we were faced I>y the fact that -a separate Navy had been started in Australia, that one was to be commenced on a email scale in New Zealand, and that a Canadian Navy was advocated by the political party nov, in Opposition in Canada. The man in the street at Home might therefore t>e excused if he thought the (Admiralty, too, "were in favour of separate navies in each 3>omiiTiion. In the Dominions, too, it might, well ibe thought that separate fleets were almost a. necessity. British j ships had been concentrated in the North j Sea. because of the rapid: increase of the German Navy. Could they be Warned for thinking that the Admiralty, having ■Gheir eyes fixed exclusively on the idea ■ of a German invasion, desired to be free of the responsibility of defending the shores of the Dominions? To Canada, iAiustrslia and New Zealand , the Pacific seemed as important as the North Sea, and Hie Yellow Peril ac great and real as *he German menace. Tie Admiralty, laving apparently left their shores unguarded, the Donn'mions felt they must Ibe up and doing for themselves. There 'were only two alternatives before the iDominione — they must either marntain iheir own navies or present money or chips to the British Navy. The diffieul-' •ties in the way of the former were tremendous, while as to the latter, if the (Dcmrmions gave ships or money, they. •naturally wanted something to show for -it. They could not be expected to gave . money or ships and , <bhen :be told that it ■was Great Britain only that was main.; Ttarning the defence of the Empire by sea.; That policy 'had 'been tried and faiiledr \ The attempt to form an Imperial Navjr ; iby the aid oE monetary contributions' • from the Dominions to an (Admiralty in • "which they had no, share had clearly;' toro-ken down, and , was- not likely to be' resuscitated. On the other hand , . the ■ Dominions would have a -h.ard tas-k to- ! iprovide 'the money to 'build. effective. . fleets, and a very much harder task to.. provide the officers and men, even with all the help the Admiralty could give in tranning. If, then, neither of these • methods would provide what was 'neces eaTT. if some different plan was inevitable, surely it would .be wiser to face the profoiem now and contrive some eystem which would appeal to all the States of' the Empire and lead to the formation of • a trne imperial Navy. THE " FIVE-NATION •' POLICY. Lieut. Hordern proceeded to urge that we could not get back to the idea of an Imperial—as distinct from a 'British— navy on the old lines, but possibly we might do so on the basis of the "five Nations " if we of the United Kingdom would become one of the five, an<l not keep ourselves on a separate pedestal. He proposed the calling of a conference with the Dominions with the view of agreeing, to a system which would link up the Dominions' navies with the British Navy in one Imperial Navy on the following general principles: (1) The Navy of the Empire should be under one control in war; (2) the training during peace should be also under one control, ana should "be eueh as to fit a-11 parts of the. whole to work together and be interchangeable; (3) the sum which each part of the Empire intended to spend on naval defence should be settled entirely by itself; (4) each part should control the spending of the sum it provided-; (5) eachpart of .the Empire should have a. distinctive share in the whole, and be represented on any central body responsible for joint action. As ■ttrihfi. «haractsc*f . ine^egi-

tral control, Lieut. Hordern advocated a reorganisation of' the Admiralty and a return to something in the nature of the system which was brought into existence during the great French war of 1793-1815, and continued until 1832. Under that syetenTtheiAKavy Board-was organised to take charge -of the civil" administration under the Admiralty, while the direction and executive duties of Lord High Admiral remained with the Admiralty Office. If this reorganisation were made, it would be comparatively easy to fit in the other parts of the Empire, because each would have ite own Navy Board, and could nominate one of its naval officers.on the staff at the Imperial Admiralty. By this means both Great Britain and the Dominions would have the control of the greater part of the money each provided for the naval defence of the Empire, and should all be represented on the body which was responsible for the strategical distribution of the Fleet, for its training in peace as a fighting force, and its direction in war. In other words, the "Five Nations" would be all in an exactly similar position. AN IMPERIAL ADMIRALTY. To complete the scheme it would be necessary to connect the five national Navy Boards with the Imperial Admiralty, and with each other. This might be done by making the political heads of the five Xavy Boards members of the Board of Admiralty, thu3 bringing together our First Lord and the Ministers for Naval Defence of the Dominions in consultation with the five Sea Lords. Together they would form the Imperial Admiralty, and would consult as to the naval requirements of the Empire from time to time. Their decisions would enable the Naval Estimates to be prepared, for each political chief of the Navy Board would know how much his own part ot the Empire was willing to spend. The Estimates would come before the various Parliaments in so far as they require expenditure t o b e voted. The money would be mostly spent by the Navy Boards under the control of these separate Parliaments, and the active fleet thus provided would be under the Imperial Admiralty, whose actions, as each State was represented, would be subject to discussion by all the Parliaments. As each Dominion would have the right to appoint one of the Sea Lords at the lmperi-al Admiralty, it might be arranged that his seniority should be determined by the sum provided, or, which would be the same thing, by the number of executive commissioned officers supplied ■by that Dominion. The chairman. Admiral Sir C. Noel, in conveying a vote of thanks to the lecturer, said he was afraid that they would have great difficulty in persuading the Admiralty to broak itself up. As far as the Navy Board wa-s concerned, it did good work in its way, but 'he doubted if it would ever come into existence again. We were one Empire, and he thought we should have one fleet. At the same time he recognised that the Dominions would want to have a voice in the affairs of that Fleet if they contributed to it The Dominions could not do better than provide fleets that would take the place of what used to be our foreign squadrons. They could not do that at present, or, indeed, for some years, but he would certainly like to see them estabHen throughout the world such squadrons as we used to have abroad. One thing was certain, we must have further help from the Dominions dn the naval defence of, the Empire in some form or other. . , . .