COMMERCE AND DEFENCE.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 13474, 14 July 1909, Page 6

COMMERCE AND DEFENCE.

The meeting of, business men held yesterday afternoon vas'an excellent preliminary to the extended. campaign which the Navy League intends to, prosecute in Canterbury. The parent League at Home has done good work in directing public attention to the supreme importance of retaining the command of the sea. Much more, however, remains to be done. The German Navy League, as the Rev. Eliot Chambers said, is' the largest and most influential organisation in the world, and the strongest "political party in the German Empire. It can justly claim that the magnificent development of the German Navy in recent years is due to its active and incessant propaganda. The Kaiser may be the. inspiring force, but aH hie hopes for a/Navy equal in strength to the Army would be futile were it not that tho Savy League has taught' Germans;' ;to think , Imperially about the Navy. If Germany ever possesses a Navy strong enough to try conclusions with the British Navy—a possibility wJiieh eeems to be coming very near to roalisatioh-rshe will owe it in. the first place to the enthusiasm of the German Navy League. In the second, place, the existence of such a Navy will be due to the national spirit of the people, and it is the same kind of spirit that the British Navy League seeks to foster throughout the Empire. In tie end, Britons would not shirk their duty and responsibility—the difficulty so far has been to convince them that to-mor-row may be too late to meet the emergency; the burden must be shouldered to-day. New Zealand's share of it is really a trifle, but even of that trifle we bear only a small proportion. Our seaborne trade, as- Mr Wigram pointed out, is valued at thirty-seven millions, and for the protection of that trade, upon - which: not merely the prosperity' but the solvency of New Zealand depends, we pay less than one-third of one per cent. The country, we firmly Believe, is willing to pay more — ie anxious to prove its readiness to help the Mother Country to bear the' burden of Imperial defence. The time has passed, however, when assurances of that patriotic anxiety were all that could be expected—it is now time, in the words

of the resolution en tried at meeting, that the people of the Dominion should make every effort, "and " if necessary some in order, that the British Navy shall retain the command of the sea. Among the methods by which Mr Wigram suggested that New Zealand, translating talk into action, can help the Mother Country, were the institution of a well-trained naval reserve and the installation of wireless telegraphy. Th"c day may come when the services of a body of New Zealanders trained to naval work might turn the tide of battle in England's favour. The men are here, but the means of training thorn are lacking, and the Amokura, useful as it is in preparing boys for a sea life, needs supplementing by a vessel on which reserves of bluejackets could by fitted for their duties. In a system of wireless telegraphy we should have some assurance against sudden attack without warning, and a means of communication if the enemy succeeded in cutting the cables, while its value in case of shipwreck is patent to all. To dc these things would cost some money, but what is the use of all our professions of patriotism if they are not ungrudgingly supported by the means to make them effective, even at the cost of eorno self-sacrifice? That is the keynote of true patriotism. For generations we have rested bdiind the sure protection of our Navy, content to give a trifling yearly subsidy towards its cost. Now for the first time in our

history the supremacy of that Navy, and therefore its ability to protect us, is challenged. Is it not time for us to show that we are no longer in tho swaddling clothes of infancy—to prove our manhood by assuming some of its responsibilities.?