DEFENCE TOPICS

Evening Star, Issue 21899, 10 December 1934, Page 3

DEFENCE TOPICS

FROM QUARTERDECK TO PARADE , GROUND [By Sam Browne.] THE GAZETTE New Zealand ‘ Gazette,’ No. 87, dated November 29, 1934, makes the following notifications: — STAFF. The undermentioned majors to be lieutenant-colonels, N.Z.S.C. Dated December 1, 1934: , P. H. Bell, D. 5.0.,; R. A. How, D.S.O. The undermentioned to be lieutenants. Dated December 1, 1934: G. H. Macan (W.O. 1., New Zealand Permanent Army Service Corns), A. R. Cockerell. D.S.O. (W.O. 11., New Zealand Permanent Staff). The following appointments in the New Zealand Staff Corps have been approved. Dated December 1, 1934 : Lieutenant G. H. Macan, N.Z S.C., to be officer-in-charge, Supplies and Transport, Southern Command, and adjutant, 3rd Composite Company, Sew Zealand Army Service Corps, Christchurch. Lieutenant A. R. Cockerell, D. 5.0., N.Z.S.C., to be adjutant, Ist Battalion, Southland Regiment, and area officer, Area 12a, Invercargill. OTAGO MOUNTED RIFLES. Captain F. J. Brooks to be major. Dated September 13, 1934. The undermentioned second lieutenants to be lieutenants. Dated September 15, 1934 :—R. C. B. Greenslade, A. S. Frame. The undermentioned to be second lieutenants. Dated August 24, 1934 : Francis Humphris Fraser, Henry Allen Scott Orbell, John Beattie M'Math, Bartlett Grant Porter. . 'REGIMENT OF ARTILLERY. Lieutenant B. G. MacAvoy, 14th Medium Battery, New Zealand Artillerv, is transferred to the Reserve of Officers, Class 1. (b) R.D. 11. Dated November 16, 1934. Second-lieutenant C. S. Dickson ceases to be posted to the 10th Field Battery, and is posted -to the 14th Medium Batterv. Dated November 16, 1934. THE OTAGO REGIMENT. Major (Quartermaster) P. MacKcn-, zie, V.D.. Ist Battalion, relinquishes the appointment of quartermaster. Dated May 31. 1934. Captain R. Fraser ceases to be posted to the Ist (Cadet) Battalion, and is posted to the Ist Battalion. Dated June 1, 1934. Lieutenant I. Patterson, Ist Battalion, is appointed quartermaster. Dated June 1, 1934. Lieutenant W. H. Scotter. from the Reserve of Officers, the Wellington Regiment, to be lieutenants with seniority from May 11, 1929, and is posted to the 3rd Cadet Battalion, the Otago Regiment. Dated November 11, 1934. Lieutenant (Quartermaster) I. Pat-, terson. Ist. Battalion, to be captain (quartermaster) the Otago Regiment. Dated June 1. 1934. THE OTAGO REGIMENT The concluding instructional parade of the calendar year was held at the Drill Hall last Tuesday evening, when there was a good attendance at the ..cerebonial practico commanded by Cap’tain P. W. G. Spiers, M.C., V.D. A mufti parade for all Dunedin portions of the unit will be held at the Drill Hall to-morrow week, December 18, for the issue of regulation boots. All ranks must return bayonets and scabbards. to the regimental cjuartermastersergeant on or before this parade. TRANSPORT SECTION A half-day parade for the transport section will be held at Central Battery on Saturday next, when the driver’s classification tests will be concluded. Drivers are warned that unless this parade is attended the complete test cannot be carried out. NAVAL STRENGTHS EMPIRE REQUIREMENTS A statement in which the attitude ox the Navy League towards the forthcoming revision of the Loudon Naval Treaty was clearly set out, was placed before the executive of the Wellington branch of the league recently by the secretary, Mr 11. Darroch. The statement and accompanying resolution, which were the outcome of a meeting of the Executive Committee of the league in London, were signed by the president, chairman, and secretary of the league, and endorsed by the members of the committle.

“ The national policy which should be adopted when the London Naval Treaty is due for revision, has received the serious consideration of the Navy League,” it was stated. “ The present position is unsatisfactory in that the number of cruisers allowed to Great Britain is wholly inadequate for the protection of - our trade routes, and is limited by the numbers allowed to other Powers whose requirements are in no way comparable to our own. The position of this country as • regards cruisers is unique, inasmuch as an efficient patrol throughout the length of our trade routes is essential if we are to obtain the food and raw materials on which our existence depends, and the paramount importance of this duty precludes the possibility of a heavy concentration of cruisers for offensive purposes. Similar considerations apply to destroyers and sloops, which are necessary for the protection of convoys. It is therefore urged on His Majesty’s Government that, apart from the question of parity in capital ships, complete freedom .of action as regards cruisers and smaller vessels I the supply of which will always be limited by other financial demands) is a national necessity.” The resolution was as follows: “ That the Navy League considers that, apart from the question of parity in capital ships, His Majesty’s Government should insist on complete freedom of action as regards cruisers and smaller craft, which are necessary for the protection of our supplies, and which, owing to the unique strategical position of the British Empire, can never be a menace to another Power.”

FORGING THE DARDANELLES ADMIRAL DE ROBECK DEFENDED “ Several reviewers of Admiral of the Fleet Sir Roger Keyes’s book . have blamed De Robeck for not having taken the fleet up the Narrow’s of the Dardanelles,” says Admiral Mark Kerr, in a letter to ‘ The Times.’ " I wish once more to, clear the character of this very fine officer, who, being dead, cannot, reply for himself. ... In 1913-14 I was Commander-in-Chief of the Greek navy, and my principal business was the Dardanelles question, as a state of war existed between Greece and Turkey. Information came in every week from Gallipoli and the Asiatic shore opposite from the Greek Secret Service agents living there. In June, 1914, a Greek admiral suggested that the- Greek fleet should go up the Dardanelles. King Constantine ordered me to report on it. My report began : —The British Fleet, backed by all the other navies of the world, could not force the passage of the. Dardanelles. This must be a military operation assisted by the Navy. There are seventeen rows of mines across the Dardanelles and several torpedo tubes along the shore. The mines must be swept up and the torpedo tubes destroyed before vessels can pass the Narrows. The batteries covering the minefields are built so that they cannot be destroyed by bombardment from ships outside the minefields. Therefore both shores must first be taken and held by the Greek armv before the passage can be made. King Constantine and the General Staff of the army agreed. Much of the Greek Secret Service information was, with permission of King Constantine, sent Homo in September, 1914, and from the accounts received from Gallipoli it appears that the minefield was extended southward in the beginning ot March, J 915, fox* on March 18 three Allied capital ships were sunk, one badly damaged by mines, and two more by forts. In May two capital ships were sunk by torpedoes, probably from the shore tubes, and one by a destiwer, while the main minefield was still left intact. It is therefore evident that the whole combined fleet would have-' been lost if ‘it persisted in going through the hundreds of mines laid in the passage, for the water being shallow a ship sunk by a mine .filled up the bole in the minefield that she had made, and her next astern in steering clear ot her would have struck another mine and also perished.”