THE SILENT NAVY

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2557, 3 September 1915, Page 6

THE SILENT NAVY

ADDRESS BY MR. PARR, M.P.

WOMEN'S REFORM LEAGUE

"The Navy and Its' Work" was the titlo of a most inspiring and interesting address which Mr. Parr, member for Auckland, gave to a well-attended, meeting of the Women's Political Reform League, held in the Theosophical Rooms in Ballance Street last evening. - Mrs. C. Earle presided. . .In his opening remarks Mr. Parr told his hearers that we' were all rather apt to tako the work of the Navy as a matter of course, and to forget that the safety' we all enjoyed at the present time was ; due to thei British Navy—to tho work of the Silent Navy in the North Sea. - . For 'every fresh; ship that Germany could build. Great Britain could build two, and to the forty-two Dreadnoughts of Germany, Britain had seventy-three —nearly_two to one. If it were not for the British Navy, iGermany.would havewon in the war by how. Much had. been heard of the enormous number of submarines ,that Germany , had decided to build,- and of the fiasco , that had resulted from their efforts. It was the custom to draw a veil over the actions of the British Navy and its work in all directions, but when the history of the war came to be written there would bo many brilliant pages filled, with -the work of our Navy, and not least Would bo the capture of a' huge, number : o£ submarines, the number of which would then be made known for tho first time.' Among its services of inestimable, valuo was the protection it gave te the transports '•'jonveyiug thousands and thousands oi troops from .Canada, Australia,' Indiis, aiid New, Zealand' to the ba-ttlfr-front.What . finer tribute could be paid to any Fleet than ; this safe coin veyance of soldiers from the far corners of tho : world to the ' scenes'of .(jon-, flict,with only the loss of a single transport? It had protected our com..merce, it had bottled up the German fleets, and it was crippling the commerce of Germany/ To quote the words of Mr. Winston Churchill—' 'If the Gorman Navy Would not come out of the Kiel Canal they would dig it out." .' • :. ' One result of this bottling up of Germany was that industries were stop' ped, work-people, were idle, banks, and all. ; institutions: that lived -upon the industries .'of a great country wero gravely interfered with. This, the speaker told his audience, could, not go on indefinitely in' Germany, it was all in favour of Britain. _ Our Fleet had enabled ships to go into our ports as though nothing had happened. Fifteen hundred ships could come and, go.into Bi'itish ports week after week, with safety, and we had to thank the Navy, for that. Mr; Parr paid a very warm tribute to the Australian ■Fleet'and -its services in. escorting our' troops, to Samoa.-. Ships with larger guns have always, ■■it would seem, won, and this was illustrated when H.M.A.S., Australia chased-, the Sdharnhorst and the Gneisenaii out of New-Zealand waters', r Very terriblo was the indictment which' Mr. Parr made against the German Navy for its; firing upon hospital' ships, its firing upon British sailors w'lien they wero rescuing German''sail-' ors-wlio were struggling in the water,, while their battleship wa-s going down, and for tho infamous .torpedoing of the Liisitania./ It had broken ,all the international rules of .war, and indeed there was no rule of, honour, at sea .thai it had not ruthlessly violated. It was tho ouWaw of the higk seas and it would be no exaggeration to say that the German Navy had covered itself with eternal obloquy for its conduct-of the war. What a- contrast .to turn to the British Navy and find that our sailors had saved tho lives of 12,282 German sailors,; and yet 'so far as could' bo ascertained not one single British sailor had been saved from, drowning the one-my. In that-; connection think of the sinking of the Cressy and thoHogue! Not one saved! "Such is uorman kultur," said tho speaker jri scathing tones; , content with firing upon and killing tho crows of harmless trawlbrs, tho German, Navy had bombarded !detowns like Scarborough and Whitby, killing twenty women and children, and had then fled as' quickly as possible when; the ships, of thp British Navy were hurrying to the.scene. In answer to a question which was put. to him at tho end of his address, Mr. Parr satil that ho cordially agreed as to the large part.'that women could play in assisting to boycott , German goods, and ho further told his hearers that only' last year £687,000 worth of Gerinanvgoods came into this country. It was by the development of her commerce _ that Germany had been enabled to be in a position to provoko this war. Another. member of tho audience brought 'forward the suggestion .that a poll tax of £100 should bo placed upon every German who wished! to enter tho country, just as it was upon every. Chinaman. Tho suggestion was received with much applause. A most appreciative and warmlyworded vote of thanks for his particularly interesting address was proposed by Miss, Speed and seconded by Mrs. Guymer, the' meeting carrying tho resolution -with acclamation. The singing _of "Auld Lang Syne" and "For Ho' 5 a Jolly Good Fellow!' closed the meeting, which had opened with the singing of the National Anthem.