DEFENCE ACTIVITY

Feilding Star, Volume 10, Issue 4043, 28 September 1933, Page 6

DEFENCE ACTIVITY

IJADLY-NEEDED LEA I) LORD I, Lb YD’S COMMENTS MENACE IX THE EAST (Au*t v .£pd ..N.Z Cable) London, Sept. 26**lt is most encouraging to learn that the great defence campaign in Australia lias* given the Imperial Parliament a badly needed lea 1. which I hopejAvill be followed.” said Lord Lloyd when interviewed by the Sun Agency. Lord Lloyd is president of the Navy League. "it is one thing to gve the world an example of disarmament and another to persist in a policy of unilateral disarmament, which would actually ensourage other nations to seize the (liauce of augmenting their naval power at the expense of England. The Empire could not watch events in the Far East and the rising liebelimny of Japan in those waters without concern. The fact that America is author of the Kellogg Pact does not bind us as to their huge expansion in naval expenditure and personnel- Franco-Italian rivalry for mastery of the Mediterranean is not a matter of mere academic interest to a power whose vital communications run through that sea. The naval requirements of other countries are in no wise comparable to Britain's, because the Empire’s sea communications are vital to England, an 1 the Dominions must again be free to build what is necessary for their own safety. It is not a question of rivalry. t Let other nations build for tlieir, need} but we must be free to do the same. We know from I lie considered? ■.pronouncements. of Lord Idea tty and Lori Jellieoe that 79 cruisers afe the bare minimum needed to defend ■ 85.000 miles o< sea route. We bad 120 cruisers before the war. Our present world commitments are far larger, yet we have only 36 cruisers' that are not obsolete to discharge our vast responsibilities of x>olicing an l protection.”