AUSTRALIAN NAVAL SHIPS NOW VISITING WELLINGTON

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 March 1948, Page 5

AUSTRALIAN NAVAL SHIPS NOW VISITING WELLINGTON

(P.A.) WELLINGTON, This Day. • Navigating the entrance to Wellington harbour by radar, the cruiser Australia, flying the flag of RearAdmiral H. B. Farncomb, and the destrover Bataan, of the visiting Australian squadron, edged their way this morning through thick fog and mist to berth at Aotea Quay. Admiral Farncomb, in a press interview, predicted many years of useful service ahead for the most efficient cruisers of conventional design, despite the reports that various nations were investigating changes in design as a result of the development of the atom bomb. Captain H. J. Buchanan, of H.M.A.S. Australia, also emphasised that a ship like the cruiser Australia was by no means an obsolete fighting unit. The value of combined naval exercises, not only between Australian and New Zealand ships, but also between units of the British Dominions and the United States, was a point stressed by Admiral Farncomb. “Such combined exercises are of great benefit, because they ensure that we keep a common doctrine going in the respective navies and make sure that we are working on common lines with the Royal Navy,” the admiral said. Some 400 men in the cruiser Australia are under 20 years of age, indicating that the Australian Navy today is a young man’s navy. The Australian squadron visited Dunedin before coming to Wellington and prior to arriving at Auckland, the next port of call, they will be joined by the Bellona, which will later take part in combined exercises.