NAVAL POLICY.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 17936, 3 December 1923, Page 6

NAVAL POLICY.

"THE RIGHT IMPERIAL DOCTRINE." THINKING in terms of oceans I.FHOM OUE OWK COBSSSPOITDjSirr.j LONDON. October Ift Discussion upon naval policy which lias taken place this -week at the Imperial Conference has not been made public, but Mr Bruce, Premier of Australia, has made a public statement of what he describes as the right Imperial doctrine. This no doubt has already been cabled to the Dominion and Australia. Mr Bruce declares that it is the policy of Australia to regardthe naval forces of the Empiro as one, directed by the Board of Admiralty in this country, and that Australia is willing to contribute not only ships and men but those indispensable adjuncts, docks harbours, fuel stations, stippliea, and the like. The Premier of Australia also stated that the Commonwealth had no intention of allowing the British taxpayer to contribute a disproportionate amount of the cost of naval defence. 1 "If such is the spirit of the Dominions," says the "'Morning Pout." "there need, be no fear for tho future. It is true enough that while thci requirements of naval defence havo beccnie increasingly onerous, the taxation of this country due to the commitments of the war makes it difficult to defray the whole cost of the protection of the trade-routes, especial.?' as the invention of the aerial weapon imposes additional expense. That expense, however, could be reduced, and a considerable economy of administration effected, if the indefeasible claim of the Navy .and of the Army to control each its own aerial arm were granted by the Government. Their perfectly reasonable demand is that the selection of men, their' discipline, employment, and promotion must bo m the sole discretion of the Navy and the Army respectively. "We venture to express a hope that the Dominion: Premiers will examine the question in whose right solution their n>val and military interests are closely involved It is merely a matter of a departmental difference of ©pinion, with which the Governments of the Dominions are not concerned, but a question affecting the very basis of Imperial, naval defence." | Battleship Supreme.

"Now that the German Fleet ( no longer exists," writes the "Daily Telegraph," "and it is not to .restrict, our vision to the North Sea, wo and our Imperial partners havo to think in terms of oceans, as Admiral of the Fleet Sir Dweton Sturdee lias recently stated; and as an oceanic weapon, in spite ef submarines and aircraft, the battleship is still supreme. The Imperial Conference has to decide, first, whether the Empire needs navy power, and if the answer be in the affirmative, how is it to be provided and supported. The old conception of a single Fleet for a united Empire has for many years been repugnant to' Dominion opinion, though it is stra'tegi" callv sound: Before the war—and, indeed, after it, when. Admiral of the Fleet Viscount Jellicoe made his tour of the Dominions—there was talk of 'fleet units' being organised by Australia, Canada, New. Zealand,, and South Africa, with a view to co-operation with the Navy maintained by this .country. The "Washington Treaty has relegated that conception to the nnxbo of unrealised .dreams. The. Conference is consequently faced -with a new situation, as the Admiralty evidently realised months ago., when, with the approval of the Dominions, it decided ■&> . establish a first-class naval base at Singapore, so as to preserve the "worldmobility of -the . only "battle squadrons at the service of the British peoples. : Dominion Navies. •

"New Zealand has already proffered her aid, arid if other Dominions did, as much in proportion to their population and wealth, the unity of the Empire would be further demonstrated on verv practical lines. But the initiative fn this matter must obviously come from the Dominions. For the rest, attention will no doubt be. given to plans for the development, in association with the British Fleet, of the navies of Australia, New Zealand and Canada; South Africa not having yet proceeded thus far in recognising her sea dependence. These younger navies, though they are- proving costly—the most costly nava] forces which have ever existed —are still so weak as to be able to exercise little br no influence even on the destinies of the peoples' who support them, much less on the destiny of the Empire as a whole. Their combined strength of ships in commission under the pressure of financial stringency has become well-nigh negligible; but they are capable of development in their material and personnel factors. The times seem to call for such action, unless the Dominions, sharing the privileges of Empire, are to forego the satisfaction of sharing also its burdens."