Evening Post. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 15, 1913. PACIFIC NAVAL CO-OPERATION

Evening Post, Volume LXXXV, Issue 12, 15 January 1913, Page 6

Evening Post. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 15, 1913. PACIFIC NAVAL CO-OPERATION

•The fact to which we' have often referred, that the New Zoalander must go abroad for information regarding thb Imperial policy of his own country, has been well illustrated during the last few days. Both Manchester and Sydney have been able to supply New Zealand with information, of this kind, for which she has looked in vain to her own trustees and managers. The news from Manchester is that Mr. Massey has communicated to the Secretary of State for the Colonies and to tho Admiralty details of an important change in tho Dominion's naval policy, which will shortly be announced, enabling a scheme of co-operativo defence in the Pacific to be brought into operation sooner than was expected. In this case it is possible that the news sent from abroad to enlighten our domestic ignorance is not as accurate as it is interesting. The Manchester Guardian is an exceptionally careful and well-informed paper, yet it must surely be what the Americans call "too previous" when, it announces that the New Zealand Government is ready with a new programme of naval policy. Has not the Premier told us in the plainest possible terms that the Government has no convictions on the subject, and must wait till Mr. Allen has conferred with the Imperial Defence Committee and the Admiralty before it attempts to get any? And is not Mr. Allen still on the high seas en rout© for London?. It seems to be out of the question that Ministers, who were unable to keep pace with Mr. Allen's views about the defence- of the Pacific while he was here, should have caught them up or started on some entirely new line of their own as soon as his back was turned. In whatever direction their minds may be inclining, they will certainly await their colleague's report before arriving at a conclusion of any kind, but we trust that the solid foundation for the Manchester Guardian's announcement is that the Colonial Secretary has been informed of the New Zealand Government's intentions to take a bold forward step in certain contingencies which Mr. Allen has yet to discuss with the Itaperial authorities. The announcement from Sydney 1« fortunately not open to doubt. The Prime Minister of the Commonwealth has stated that the proposed Conference on Imperial defence has been definitely arranged. Canada, . Australia, and New Zealand have' all approved the proposal, and agreed to send representatives. South Africa is not mentioned, nor the Mother Country, though the latter at any rate, is bound to be represented ill gome way or other. The ideal representative of Great Britain Would of course be Mr. Churchill himself, whose proposed visit to Canada might be fixed for the same time. Vancouver has been suggested by The Times as a convenient place for such a Conference. Geographically it would be eminently suitable from its central position, and o Canada- will clearly have established a paramount claim on higher grounds to entertain the Conference by the time her Parliament has adopted the naval programme of the Borden Government. An Imperial Defence Conference meeting after the adoption of that programme in Vancouver or Ottawa, and with the First Lord of the Admiralty in the chair, would be a memorable event. Good work was done by the Conference of the Bame kind which was held in London in 1909, but changed conditions have tendered much of the work of that Conference obsolete. Australia ha* gone gallantly ahead with the work of organising the naval defence of her own shores, which she then undertook, but New Zealand has seen nothing of the China unit of the Pacific Fleet to which her protection was to be specially entrusted, and the Admiralty, under irresistible pressure from the other side of the North Sea, has steadily weakened its forces in these waters. Canada, on the other hand, which gave no undertaking regarding the defence of the Pacific four yeaTa ago, is now giving us all a lead. There is every i^eason why the work of the Defence Conference of 1909 should be revised and bought up to date, nor could a better time than the present have been selected. One immense advantage that New Zealand gains from Canada's bold lead is that it seems to come very, near to bridging the gap between the two opinions which have been recently dividing her allegiance. New Zealand is in no mood to start a navy of her own. She admires the courage and enterprise of Australia, but feels that such a task is beyond her own powers. At the same time she feels that a mere cash contribution to the Imperial Navy, even if it were sufficient in amount, would still be inadequate in kind. Her growing nationhood demands something less unworthy of the dignity of a nation. But the same sentiment suggests to come minds that New Zealand should not become a sort of province of Australia by playing a very subordinate part in her naval venture, while to others the success of Australia's enterprise does not seem sufficiently, assured to justify New Zealand's participation. Both these classes of objections would apply with much diminished force to a scheme in which Canada also 'would take a hand* and which must necessarily be conducted under Imperial auspices. Canada, with ships on the Atlantic actually belonging to the British Navy, and with ships on the Pacific belonging to A Pacific Fleet to which Australia and New Zealand would also contribute, and which they would control in conjunction with her, would thus supply an admirable link in the defence scheme between two oceans, and two ideals of naval policy. Taking a hand in snch a programme as that, Ngw Zealand • would

have no need to fear that she vu not acting Imperially. Sh© would be doing the beet for herself and for the Empire by undertaking directly the responsibilities of naval defence, and by leaving the Mother Country free to face the evergrowing strew of international rivalry in the North Sea. ,