IN THE RIGHT PLACE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16646, 3 September 1914, Page 6

IN THE RIGHT PLACE.

When" New Zealand's Commissioner to the Panama Exhibition was speaking at San Francisco a few weeks ngo, he said that "the Armageddon of the future would be fought in the Pacific, and not in the Atlantic." The prediction, made at a moment when the Imperial navy was already stripping for the supreme test of battle in the North Sea, may reasonably bo regarded as an echo of the- naval defence controversy in this country, and we need not blame the Commissioner for his failure to see further into the future than some other people did. But to read of the incident now is to realise more fully than ever that the war has settled one question finally for New Zealand. The outbreak of war found every British dominion and dependency safeguarded by the Imperial fleet—becauso the navy was in the right place. Courage, patriotism, self-sacrifice, wealth, all would have •availed us nothing if the great grey squadrons controlled and directed by the Admiralty had not been ablo to guarantee British shipping the freedom of the seas and drive the battle-squad-rons of the enemy ignominiously into shelter. The loss of tho command of the sea for a week would havo shaken tho Empire • to its foundations, and would have involved the Motherland in a desperate fight for existence upon her soil. The defeat of the fleet would havo shattered the fabric of our national greatness and placed all the scattered British States at tho mercy of a greedy and unsparing foe. These obvious truths scarcely need to be stated to-day, and wo have no wish to mention naval policy in any party spirit whatever. But.it is very pleasant to us, as it must be to all New Zealanders, whatever tlroir pre-war opinions may have boon, to know that the Dominion's voluntary

contribution to tho navpl defence of the Empiro was given at tho right time and in tho right way. The battlecruiser is where sho ough J : to be, patrolling the danger zones of tho North Sea with her sister ships and playing her part worthily in tho great drama of war. She will go into battle, when tho hour comes, as a unit of the Empire's fighting fleet, and through her New Zoaland will share Hie glory as well as the burden of victory. Tho Admiralty policy of a single powerful navy has boon abundantly justified.