"USE SUBMARINES"

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 70, 23 March 1934, Page 5

"USE SUBMARINES"

DOMINION DEFENCE.

NAVAL EXPERT'S ADVICE.

former under-sea fighter

"Submarines are the ideal weapon of defence for a country such as New Zealand," said Captain Chester Wells, tired United States Navy, who passed through Auckland on the Mariposa todav on his way to Australia. The captain was in charge of the United States Atlantic submarine feet before his retirement ten years ago. The main Atlantic submarine base is a Xew London, and that yhich pro ec the Panama Canal is at Coco Solo. Cap tain Wells said that the very nature of New Zealand, isolated from the Mother Country, made the use of submarines for defensive purposes essential Their value was being realised more and more in the navies of the world. They could do deadly damage, and yet required a minimum of men o handle them, and cost very much less to maintain than above-water battleA similar opinion was Expressed last ,Month by Admiral C. Greatorex, retired Royal Navy, when he arfiyed by £ e Tamaroa. "I consider. that submarines are the best method of protection for a weaker Power," said the admiral who is not a believer m aerial defence aleme, Sirssjsa* cruisers of about 10,000 to» for Empire defence, and submarines f r the . tion of such small counties as JNew Zealand. ~ Questioned about the danger to the crews of submarines an& the recent peace-time disaster* that have occurred Captain Wells said that there was S. d «t in a submarine than in a fig ll m =>

plane," he continued. "It is certainly a very hard life, and, like the British Navy, we pay officers and men on tliem more than those on surface craft. It is an excellent training for a young man to start his naval career on a submarine. I am not here to advise !New< Zealand on the type of defence she should, have, but I would say in general terms that a well-organised, highlydisciplined submarine fleet, such as Britain possesses, would be the finest defence arm New Zealand could have. Captain Wells, who is travelling with his wife and two daughters, is on a pleasure trip to Australia, and intends to return to America in six weeks' time bv the same steamer. His previous visit to New Zealand was in 1906, when he was an officer on the U.S.s. Baltimore.