AUSTRALIA'S DEFENCE.

Evening Star, Issue 11694, 27 September 1902, Page 6

AUSTRALIA'S DEFENCE.

CORRECTING 'THE TIMES.'

Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. LONDON, September 26.

(Received September 27, at 9.16 a.m.) Sir John Forrest, in a letter to 'The Times,' makes a correction in the published reports of the remarks made by him on the 21st August. What he stated was that Australia, so far as internal defence was concerned, was able to take care of herself, basing his remark on the number of men available between eighteen and sixty years of age. The original report of his statement omitted the word " internal." In a leading article 'The Times' rather sneered at Sir John's statement to the interviewer.

The words from The Times,' referred to in the above nessage, are as follow: The danger io the future of Australia appears to lie mainly in the over-confidence of the home-brdd people in their own powers and their lack of knowledge of the state of things in other parts of the Empire and of the world. There is something of this m the remark of Sir John Forrest at Liverpool, as he was starting with Sir Edmund Bai+on on their journey back to Sydney, that 'in regard to defence Australia was quite able to take care of herself.' If the British Navy no longer held the command of the seas and the peace of the world were broken, this Ulusion might be»rudply shattered by invadere who would deal with hvdnev and Melbourne as Napoleon dealt with Hamburg. It is equally true, no ■lb a f, man 7 Australians complain, that in the Mother Country far too little is xnown of the colonies. If our pubUc men were put under an obligation to make a tour through the principal parts of the British Empire before discussing questions of Imperial policy at Westminster, many mistakes would probably be avoided" .