NAVAL DEFENCE OF THE EMPIRE

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 255, 24 July 1936, Page 10

NAVAL DEFENCE OF THE EMPIRE

Members of the Wellington Branch of the Navy League, which is to hold its annual meeting on Monday night next, will find a text for discussion in Sir Samuel Hoare’s speech to the Empire Parliamentary Association, reported this morning. ‘ The defence burden is falling heavily upon the United Kingdom,” said Sir Samuel, “and the interests of the other units of the Empire may suggest to them ways of sharing the burden.” The annual premium which we in New Zealand pay for naval protection runs out at about 9/1 a head of population; Australia pays 6/5 a head, Canada about 1/6, and the European population of South Africa a head. On the other hand, even in the low building year 1930-1931 the Royal Navy cost the people of the United Kingdom £l/2/7 a head. The cost this year, with the extraordinarily accelerated building programme, will amount to about £l/10/- a head.

It may be objected that the Royal Navy means more to England and to Scotland than to New Zealand and Australia. Whatever our vulnerability to sea or air attack, we cannot be bombarded from another country. England can. Even in the last war there were guns capable of dropping shells forty miles deep into the English countryside had the enemy been established on the French coast. But is naval protection protection against direct invasion only? If Britain lost control of the seas, would we in New Zealand be much better off in war-time than the people of the United Kingdom? Break the power of the British Navy, and you break New Zealand’s link with the overseas markets upon which she depends for her prosperity. You rob her of the chance of succour against the foe. You cut the very sinews of Empire. It is instructive to look at the spread of naval expenditure in the light of this reality. Great Britain invests in the maintenance of her naval strength 3.04 per cent, of the total value of her import and export trade; Australia 1.06 per cent.; New Zealand .77 per cent.; Canada .15 per cent.; and South Africa .043 per cent. For the defence of territory, New Zealand has greater need of air power than of sea power. But defence of territory is part only of our defence requirements. We have to defend also the twelve thousand miles of ocean across which our ships are ceaselessly moving; for that part of the work we must look primarily to the Navy. Therefore it is not fair that we should expect the British taxpayer to dip' into his pockets three times more deeply .than we dip into ours to provide defence which, at the very most, is no more than twice as valuable to him as it is to us—which if we place any value upon the continued security and integrity of the Empire, is of equal importance to every one of its widely-spaced units.