THE NAVAL PROBLEM NEW ZEALAND AND THE ADMIRALTY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 76, 31 March 1914, Page 3

(MOM OCR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) LONDON, 20th February. In a leading article on Now Zealand's naval proposals, written in light of the full reports of the debates in the New Zealand Parliament. The Tinier says :■—- "The disagreement between the New Zealand Government and the Admiralty is Jinich to he regretted. Nothing, we are ture, was farther from the minds of our jiaval authorities, when they declined to carry out the 100!) agreement, than to break faith with the Dominion. But Mr. Allen's view must be widely he'd in New Zealand. The truth i.s that since 190!) the pressure- oF naval competition In European waters has inado it necessary to station ships where they might have ships of their own quality to light. Evidently the Admiralty now thinks that it would be a waste of need* ed etrcngth do send two new light cruisers of the latest type to New Zea> land waters. "The technical merits of the controversy apart, its origin is not in doubt.. Mr. Massey ha« expressed '.he

opinion that 'the Pacific will be the storm centre of tho future.' Tho Admiralty is tied and bound by the netcfisity of making adequate provision for nava-1 defence in European waters. In those circumstances it is hardly possible that Air. Mas^ey's renewed request for the two 'Bristol' cruieers will bo grajitcd. Tho change of policy has come about through our failure to provide for the naval defence of the Pacific in a way which would make New Zealand feel secure. Those who are clamouring tor a. decrease in naval expenditure should realise that the dissatisfaction in New Zealand has been aggravated by the use which ie being made ot the battle-cruiser presented by the Dominion. New Zcalanders are justly proud of their gift, and they have refused to make it conditional in any way. Now they find that the New ( Zealand is definitely allocated to European waters. We have repeatedly condemned this method of dealing with a Dominion-provided ship. Technically justified, it is radically opposed to every principle ot Imperial solidarity. What is thought of it in New Zealand may be judged from Mr. Allen's remark that, though tho New Zealand had been given unconditionally, it had certainly been supposed that she would constitute an addition to the naval fetrength of the Empire, but that thus was not tho case. We had appropriated, in short, to our own immediate needs a warship which should have maintained the prestige of Great Britain in Pacific waters, and we have left New Zealand to take the steps which sho herself thinks Accessary for her own protection in a spirit which certainly borders upon resentment at the treatment meted out to her. This may be pound and necessary strategy, but its effect upon Imperial interests is deplorable."