MARGIN OF SAFETY.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 22 October 1924, Page 7

MARGIN OF SAFETY.

BRITAIN’S NAVAL POLICY. BY CABLE —PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT. (Received Oct. 22, 11.55 a.m.) LONDON, Oct. 21. The Times in a leader says: “Even from a purely British and Imperial viewpoint the power of the navy has been brought down perilously near the margin of safety, and any further reduction would be suicidal madness. The determination of the country’s naval strength is, or should be, a question outside the region of party politics, hut the trouble is that the Labour Party and many Liberals, in thenconsuming zeal for universal peace and disarmament, blind themselves to the reality of the danger. Mr MacDonald and his party declined to carry out the full programme of naval construction (modest as it was) which their predecessors regarded as the minimum essential for safety. There are, no doubt, - among the more temperatelyminded members of the Labour Party many who are alive to the vital necessity for maintaining the navv at the full strength -permitted by the Washington agreement, hut here, as elsewhere, the party as a whole has shown that its policy is dictated by fear of its extremists and that it cannot be trusted to take the necessary precautions for the safety of the country, the supply of its food and the security of its Imperial communications.”