LORD JELLICOE'S VISIT

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue LXXIV, 23 August 1919, Page 5

LORD JELLICOE'S VISIT

ADMIRAL HOPES TO DEVISE, SAT-

ISFACTORY SCHEME

(BY TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION.) WELLINGTON, Aug. 21.

Members of the Government entertained at luncheon at Bellamy's to-day Admiral Lord Jellicoe and the officers of his staff and the ship's company of the New Zealand.

In reply to the toast of the Navy, Lord Jellicoe said he could well remember that in the early days of unrestricted - submarine campaigning by the Germans, how Mr Massey had drawn his attention to the loss of the fine New Zealand ship Rotorua, and he had to assure Mr Massey, as he had to tell other people at the time, he had not the destroyers to send to protect these vessels. The only thing that enabled the Admiralty to adopt the convoy system had been the assistance of the American Navy in giving their whole destroyer forces. One lesson to he learned was to be prepared. He hoped the League of Nations would be able to reduce the chances of war. but the British Navy was the only safeguard1 of Britain and th e Empire, and he hoped it would not be reduced. The burden had become too great for the Mother Country to shoulder by herself, and he felt that the mission on which he was at present engaged, was of very real importance. He hoped it might be possible to produce a scheme which would be favorably considered by the great overseas Dominions, and that, as the result, assistance would be forthcoming from these Dominions, so that these dependencies would not have to depend entirely on the British Navy for security. He felt the problem out here, from the shores of Africa to the shores of America, was one problem, and all portions of the British Empire writhin those boundaries were alike interested in the security of sea communications. He hoped they would be able to devise a scheme which would not only affect the Dominions, but alteo the Mother Country—a scheme which, if adopted, would bring more adequate security fo r the sea communications of the Empire in these waters