Minister’s Assessment Of Navy’s Condition

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29336, 15 October 1960, Page 14

Minister’s Assessment Of Navy’s Condition

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, October 14. It was completely untrue to suggest that New Zealand had frigates in commission with their hulls stopped with concrete, the Minister of Defence (Mr Connolly) said today, He was replying to the criticism of the Royal New Zealand Navy by Mr A. R. Mackay at the Navy League’s conference in Dunedin. Mr Mackay said. “Two of our frigates are reported to have holes in their bottoms stopped up with cement.” Mr Mackay was also reported to have described New Zealand’s present Navy as a waste of time. “So far this year, ships of the Royal New Zealand Navy have surveyed our coasts, conducted oceanographic research, patrolled our fishing grounds, brought stores and medical aid to remote Pacific islands, supplied meteorological stations and our Antarctic base, exercised with ships and aircraft of seven nations in areas ranging from the Tasman Sea to the Indian Ocean, and contributed a ship continuously to our defences in the Commonwealth Strategic Reserve in South-east Asia. I suggest that is not bad for a Navy that Mr Mackay unwisely suggests is a waste of time,” Mr Connolly said. “The Navy League can serve a most useful purpose in keeping the ’Navy and its needs before the public. But its value is impaired by such wild and incorrect statements as Mr Mackay’s suggestion that we have frigates in commission whose hulls are stopped with concrete. That, of course is completely untrue. “It would be unfortunate if the use of the title ‘commander’ led people to believe that Mr Mackay’s views were based on recent naval experience. He retired from the naval reserve after war service some 15 years ago and he is not a serving officer of the Royal New Zealand Navy.

“This is the Navy’s position at the moment. The cruiser Royalist has just emerged in most satisfactory condition from an extended refit. The first of our new fast frigates is working up ip the United Kingdom, and sails for New Zealand in a few weeks. The second is nearing completion. “The Loch class frigate Rotoiti,

after modernisation and refit, has joined the Far East Fleet as a fully operational unit, and a second Loch frigate, Pukaki, has begun a similar refit. “When the new frigates arrive from the United Kingdom we shall probably dispose of two of the Loch frigates, Taupo and Tutira. “This is a healthy condition and the people of New Zealand need have no fears either for the efficiency of their Navy or its future as a career for their sons. “We are following our plan of ship replacement and we have called tenders for a third frigate. We do not need pressure from anyone to tell us what should be done,” Mr Connolly said.