THE BURDEN OP NAVAL DEFENCE. • >——_

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1620, 11 December 1912, Page 6

THE BURDEN OP NAVAL DEFENCE.

His Excellency Admiral KingHjill, Commander of the Australasian station, possesses a happy gift of public speaking which he has turned to good account during his present visit to New Zealand. The speeches he has delivered here and elsewhere, and the views he hag expressed concerning questions of naval defence, cannot fail to have impressed the public with the vital importance of the naval, issue to the whole Empire; but mors especially must they have assisted to bring home to the people of this Dominion the responsibility, resting on their shoulders to bear their full share' of the heavy and increasing burden imposed by the necessity of Britain maintaining the supremacy of the sea. Not that Admiral King-Hall has in any way sought to depreciate what New Zealand has already done in this respect. Rather the reverse. But it only required a clear statement from a-n authoritative source of the actual position of naval affairs to ensure a fuller understanding of how disproportionate to the burden carried by the Mother Coun-' try has been the contribution made in the past by this Dominion. Never before in the history of New Zealand has the question of naval defence received such close attention from its public men or aroused such widespread interest amongst its citizens, and this must be regarded as an admirable sign of an awakening which wc hope and believo will lead to a clearer xmderstanding of what lies ahead. We cannot do much as compared with the Mother Country and some of the larger overseas dominions; but we cau do our share, which we have not done in the past, and we can show that New Zealand is not going to lag behind in any particular—whether it be in the way of financial contributions or in providing and training the men to man the ships, or by any other means within Its power. Tno desire- of tho jMje-pio bore, is to ensure'that buc^,

incaiiß iui arc at tlioir disposal shall l)ii turned to tlio bout possible advantage of Llio Empire as a whole. Our diflieiilty ufc prawn t chiefly lies in deciding what id best to be done, not merely for the purposes of the moment, hut as a mutter of general poliey, hearing on (.lie possibilities of the future.