NAVY AND PUBLIC.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 115, 16 May 1924, Page 4

NAVY AND PUBLIC.

To gome people it may appear a trifle ungenerous to criticise our naval visitors; but we think thnt there is at least some ground for the complaint of a correspondent who has gathered the impression that there is a spirit in the flagship rather of indifference to the public. This has been noticed very generally by Press observers. The newspapers have very largely made the success of the visit; public interest has been built up over a lengthy period by what amounts to free propaganda. To realise that this is so it is only necesssary to attempt to visualise the amount of interest that would have been taken in the visiting warships had they been travelling under war conditions with no public reference made to their movements. Yet the newspapers have • received no special facilities in carrying on their work and have provided a record of the visit after the arrival of the chips rather against the passive opposition of at least some of (hose in command than with their co-operation. Th... spirit is so unusual in such cases as to provoke comment. The somewhat cavalier treatment of the Press is not brought forward here as a grievance, hut because at. least indirectly it supports our correspondent "Imperialist." who, we are satisfied, is not voicing a complaint that is without some foundation. The task of showing people the sights of a warship must in lime become tedious, but on an educative and ceremonial visit, such as the present, whether the ships ore among their own people in (he port of Auckland, or among strangers in Ran Francisco Bay. it should not be too much to ask that when thrown open for public inspection the business be properly organised. We have hesitated lo voice this criticism, and have only done so because the matter of complaint is so readily subject to the application of a remedy.