LOCAL DEFENCE

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 26, 31 January 1924, Page 10

LOCAL DEFENCE

NEW ZEALAND'S EXPOSED POSITION. '

(BI mEGIUPH.—PRESS ASSOCIATIONS AUCKLAND, 30th January. The Dominion Conference of the New Navy League was opened today, Mr. D. Maclean presiding. The delegates were welcomed by the Mayor (Mr. J. H. Gunson). Mr. A. M. Ferguson was elected chairman of the conference and president for the ensuing year. A long discussion arose out of a remit brought' forward by Commander Mid-' dleton, R.N.—'.'That immediate , steps should be taken to provide the necessary material and train officers and men for the local defence of our harbours and coasts. This is a duty the Imperial Navy can never undertake, and must be provided for from local resources. The necessary material can largely be obtained from the Imperial Navy by loan, purchase, or gift. Officers and men can be drawn from local yachtsmen, but they must have the necessary craft and equipment, and it will be two or three years befure any local efficiency can be looked for. This will cost a good dcal^but at present our coasta and harbours av« quite defenceless against the attacks of submarines, mine-layers,.; and. ' similar craft." . ■ , ,

The remit was adopted after Mr. Frcaleven (Canterbury) had withdrawn his opposition on the ground that the matter was outside practical politics and that if the money was - spent on coast defence, tho main defence— tho Royal Navy—would be neglected, Lieutenant R. J. Nisbofc (Nelson) expressed the opinion that tho Singapore base was not going to benefit New Zealand as much, as somo people imagined. It was not be'ing built for the defence o£ tho Dominion, Ths protection of the trade routes to Australia and India \vas infinitely jiiova important, and any system of coast defeneo in New Zealand would have to be cartied out by New Zealand-itself.