WHY NAVY WEEKS ARE NEEDED

Hokitika Guardian, 3 October 1929, Page 8

WHY NAVY WEEKS ARE NEEDED

(By J. M. N. Jeffries in the London “Daily Mail.”)

Tile luck of the Navy nowadays is pretty well the reverse of what it was once. The Senior Service is now discernibly out of fashion ; not that this is in any way to its discredit, ‘ lor anything may go out of fashion provided only that people are fickle enough. At the same time this unfashionableness is 'unlucky for the Navy, and before very long may well be dangerous to it. It was for this reason that Mr H. W. Wilson’s plea for a naval pageant was so opportune. It is to be hoped that next year, by which time something on a suitable scale may be organised, his idea will bear its fruit. The present Navy Weeks, of which the Plymouth Week oegins to-day and lasts till the 24th. are useful demonstrations in any ease. *

I confess, however, that I find some irony in thinking that the naval demonstrations which upon a time served to remind the forgetful foreigner of Britain should now be needed on the coast of Britain hersef to remind forgetful Englishmen of their Navy.

What need to remind them, some may ask? Why turn our Fleet into an entertainment agency? Why advertise it instead of allowing it todo its wo riband earn its title of “silent”?

The reason, to one unprompted mind at least, is, this. The greatest economies are to be practised in the near future' upon the credits of- the fighting Services. The temper and the net-ess-ities of the world alike demand the reduction of annamenu>.

What chance has the Navy to-day? Its work is a mystery to all, carried out afar and in a few ports. So much of a mystery is it that, when we understand nothing of a matter we say we are at sea. No destroyers rumble side by side over Surrey commons, no conveys of batleships cross the heavens of Metropolis on Midlands, every glitter in the sun an advertisement. The occasional manoeuvres of fleets, reduced to the most exiguous limits, are technical, obscure,;untranslatable.

What is the result? In the supreme arbiter, in the public mind, the Navy recedes. It is not recollected that all the vast commerce of the Empire, carried upon the sea, upon the sea alone ultimately can be defended. The survival of a single airman from an ocean trip wins an importance denied to the long lives ;ofi. thousands of sailors on all the waters of the globe.

Troops save situations and are justly applauded: no one remembers troopships. Nor remembers whether it is snips which rescue air passengers, or whether it-is lifeplanes which speed out into the night to save crews from the tempest. Ships at;e costly: ’planes are cheap. To-day is handed over in return for a promise of an undated tomorrow. - Thus in the public mind,, by imperceptible degrees, the axiom takes form that the natural j place for the fullest economy is in the Navy, that when, moneys come to be withdrawn from the ' Admiralty, that if there is to be a Service corps as a result of a financial operation, the body which can best be spared is thatdressed in dark blue. Are the reasons for Navy Weeks and naval displays now more evident?