NAVAL EXPENDITURE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 27 July 1925, Page 5

NAVAL EXPENDITURE.

ECONOMIES NECESSARY

rfV CABLE—PRESS ASSOCIATION-COPYRIGHT

LONDON, July 25. Air. J. L. Garvin, editor of the Observer, in a remarkably article in the Observer dealing with the cruiser decision, declares: “The Admiralty lias inflicted the first damaging blow against the Administration. Within a measurable period either the Budget or the Government must come down. Two vital principles have been violated, which must bo reimposed within a year ;rt any political cost, namely, economy first and civil,control of th e Navy. Th© Navy’s voice should be heard, but it should not be allowed to dominate, and in case of future Admiralty ultimatums a strong Prime Minister should instantly accept the whole board’s resignations.

“We are spending £115,000,(XX) upon th© navy, army, and air force, and it must be reduced. In this air age it stiil leaves the heart of the Empire more perilously exposed than at any period in history. Germany lost the battle of the Marne because she spent too little on her army, owing to the cost of her navy. For Britain to attempt to maintain three great fighting services is to court financial and strategic disaster. The Admiralty’s policy will destroy the peace time economic foundations of our defence and exhaust in advance the sinews of war. Until economics are actually realised public faith in Afr. Baldwin will remain shaken by the past week’s' events.”