COAST DEFENCE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 160, 8 July 1940, Page 5

COAST DEFENCE.

NEED FOR M.T.B.'S.

AUXILIARY TO NAVY.

'(By NEW ZEALANDER.)

The enlightening illustrated article on motor torpedo-boats published lately in the "Week-End Pictorial" should iave been.of the greatest interest to all who are concerned about the defences of New Zealand. That should include everyone who* gives any thought at all to the vulnerable conditions of our four thousand miles of shore line.- There arc many who, like myself, are not content with Government assurances that all is well and that we shall stand shoulder to shoulder behind this and that and our dauntless resolution will carry us through.

New Zealanders generally are not content to leave all to the Cabinet and. to Parliament. More light is needed in the dark places of official secrecy. We may depend on it that all the facts about the condition of our defences are known in enemy quarters.

The type of fast torpedo-and-gun motor-boat described as forming part of the Nazi contemplated attacking force on the British coast was criticised by some authorities quoted in the "Star. But in spite of its likely defects when used as an invading arm, such a motorcraft,. or an adaptation of it, seems a very suitable method of coastal defence. Two to four torpedo tubes' each, small quick-firer guns, and machine-guns, make a perfect equipment for a defensive mosquito fleet of speedy launches. They need not be much larger or faster than the well-design* l /!-motor craft used in modern methods of whale-hunting at Tory Channel.

We had several torpedo-boats at an early stage in New. Zealand's coast defence. They were small and flimsy ?vessels less than forty feet in length; One was stationed at Auckland and was used by the Submarine Mining branch of. the Permanent Artillery at the North Head. (One of the others, used at

Dunedin, I well remember, because [ once made a far inland voyage in her, long after her Defence Force days;' it was on Lake Wanaka, where, converted into h .trading cutter, steam, and sail, she was called the Tilikum, after Captain Voss' famous Indian canot). The modern M.T.B.'s are very different vessels, as fit to face rough weather as any lifeboat. From all I have read and heard of them, they should be the most useful, little ships we could have as auxiliaries to Navy cruisers and fast destroyers, and to tile Air Force.

Such handy boats could well be manned by our smart young yachtsmen and others not so young, the veterans of our large squadrons of motor-launches, these men, acquainted with every bay and creek on the coast, could act in concert with the scouting aeroplanes, and make night raids on any enemy cruiserr menacing Auckland and other poits. One great virtue of such craft is that they ore a comparatively economical naval arm. Figures as to their cost show that a whole fleet of them could be built for the price of one modern cruiser. Moreover, the hulls could be built in Auckland, and a timber hull would possess obvious advantages over one ot the thin steel used abroad. American manufacturers could supply everything el Wc could have small fighting squadrons patrolling the coast waters in a few months, if the Government would switch a couple of millions of our precious taxmoney from unnecessary public buildand speedway roads to the vital needs of defence. In this suggestion 1 there seems to be material for an urgent question in Parliament.;