TKE BREADNOUCHT OFFER.

Bush Advocate, Volume XXI, Issue 256, 3 May 1909, Page 5

TKE BREADNOUCHT OFFER.

i At the conclusion of his policy speech at InveTcargill on Saturday last, the Premier referred to the t)readnought offer. He said that action, of Government in offering •Jo'tne BriiiM-^ti^norities. the : gift of , a Dreadnought from the ' had aroused wide and intense 1 expression of approval, though a small section professed .«, disappointment. , The English • Socialist leader- Blatchford had declared strongly for increasing naval strength, showing , that the man on the spot recognised it would be a calamity to the workers unless the British navy was made ■impregnable. <The Prime Minister drew * graphic picture of the consequences of. war, with the possible result of New Zealand passing to a foreign Power as an indemnity. When anyone is talking I of the cost of a Dreadnought or two J •Dreadnoughts, he asked, does be for j a moment suppose, looking at it f rom j a mercenary point of view, that it i would equal the cost of what. the penalty would be to -us? Our very existence depended upon the strength, power and mightiness of the British Empire, and all talk of joining bands with Australia in the matter of a local navy was' next to futile. The constitutional aspect of' the matter Avould'be.diily laid !bef ore Parliament. 'To' have asked, the individual members to commit themselves would have been most unfair. • The Executive ■took the responsibility and would risk ■the subsequent . ratification by the people, and Parliament, in their loyal )and practical support to the-old land, 'by rising above party and standing' at all costs to the Motherland that i had given us; protection for the last l 70 years for an infiiiitely small amount of naval subsidy.

; The Minister's eloquent preroration Was received . >vith^ tremendous ap-

plause